Marbles on glass
by Gryophone
Summary: After her escape Chell finds herself in a strange world but there's something strangely familiar about it. My first attempt, rated T for later chapters and to be safe.
1. Chells' Freedom

**warning** contains spoilers!

"Grab me grab me grab me grab me!" the blue of his optic widened in panic, his voice becoming nothing more than a distant echo. She reached out on instinct in a last ditch attempt to rescue her once friend from the emptiness of space. But too late, he was gone. Following the trajectory of the smaller core who, moments ago, had been joyfully shouting about space.  
Dizziness had started to creep in from the lack of oxygen as GLaDOS tugged her back through the portal, back into the confines of her chamber. The A.I dropped her from her metal claw onto the hard ground and Chell hardly registered the pain this caused her. She gulped in a welcome mouthful of stale air, watching as Her arm dragged Her 'head' along the ground. Darkness crept into the corners of her vision and, with a shuddering gasp, her body finally gave up.

XXX

Chell wasn't aware of how long she had been out, but now as she groggily opened her eyes Her chamber had returned to its former glory. She was met with two glowing optics, one orange and the other blue. They looked at each other, then back down to her. Moving almost in sync, although their shapes were so drastically different, they stepped aside as she slowly stood. Leaning a little on the glass of the elevator, she scowled as GLaDOS lowered her yellow optic. Instinctively Chell tightened her hand to grasp the ASHPD and hid her dread as she realized it was not on her arm.  
"Oh thank god you're all right," there was relief in Her feminine voice, but Chell knew better than to take that at face value. She forced her arms to her sides, watching GLaDOS as she moved around in Her chassis, "you know, being Caroline taught me a valuable lesson, I thought you were my greatest enemy when all along, you were my best friend," Chell kept her face as stoic as ever, not quite knowing if her attempted murderer come potato ally was being sarcastic or serious. GLaDOS rocked in Her chassis, fixing her momentarily with that single, yellow optic before swinging away again, almost coy, "the surge of emotion that shot through me when I saved your life taught me an even more valuable lesson, where Caroline lives in my brain," again Chell found herself looking into the 'face' of the giant A.I, a single beep echoing around the chamber.  
"Caroline deleted," a male voice announced and Chell felt her fingers again twitch for the strange comfort of the ASHPD. The panels that had been sat up, watching them, fell flat and limp in their places.  
"Goodbye Caroline," the apparent emotion had disappeared from Her voice, Chell gritted her teeth, "you know, deleting Caroline just now taught me a valuable lesson. The best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one and, I'll be honest, killing you is hard," Chell could have laughed at that, but kept silent as ever, her face betraying no emotions, GLaDOS continued on, "you know what my days used to be like? I just tested, nobody murdered me or put me in a potato or fed me to birds, I had a pretty good life, " She nodded as her optic curved, giving the appearance of a smile, "and then you showed up. You dangerous, mute, lunatic," with every word of Her insult She moved Her head closer, as if driving the point home, "and you know what? You win. Just go," the elevator began to move, soundlessly and smoothly towards the ceiling. Chell blinked, was this going to be like the cake she had been promised? Only this time, she was trapped with no portal gun, "heh heh heh, its been fun. Don't come back," GLaDOS said from below as the elevator moved out of Her chamber.  
Chell stared out of the glass, prepared for when the glass doors opened and she would inevitably find herself in another test chamber. A few lights passed by before it stopped rather suddenly by a large metal door, the little red light flicking to green as the middle part swiveled and opened. Revealing four turrets in a line, their red lasers scanning over her.  
Panic almost took her for the briefest moment, could their bullets penetrate this glass? In the test chambers behind glass had been a safe place for her from these sweet voiced killers, but was this glass just as strong? She had a feeling she would soon find out.  
Chell braced herself for the release of a hundred bullets as their sides parted. One by one their lasers turned off and they began to play a simple, yet beautiful melody. Chell felt the corner of her mouth lift in a small, relieved, smile. These had to be the singing turrets she had found hidden beneath a grate in one of those dens.  
She listened to their sweet song, allowing herself to relax just a little, as the elevator again began to move. Still hearing their tune she passed a few open doors, a turret built laying to the side in the first, a handful of defective turrets in the second, three more of the angled turrets in the next, four normal turrets stood around a weighted cube. A dark room penetrated by a good handful of more of the sweet voiced machines and behind them cubes flew down vents, two more of them in the next room she passed, all gone by too quickly for her to gauge any danger.  
The elevator began to slow and she looked up, a heavy weight settling into the pit of her stomach as she was met by the glowing red of hundreds of the turrets, sat around a domed room. Their focus completely set on her. She clenched her fists, her lips tightening into a thin line and glaring out of what would be her glass coffin . GLaDOS had her this time, after all those attempts and lies of cake, She would finally kill her.  
It took her a moment to realize one single turret had been playing a tune the whole time she had been preparing for death. As soon as she had noticed they all started in a chorus of wonderful, uplifting and slightly sad sound. A single slightly larger robot (she had seen this one before, several times. Once being sang at by the four further down the shaft, and twice before sat in an elevator between test chambers) sat above the others, the sounds it made sounded much more human than the rest. Chell blinked in surprise, it was singing. Actual words, although she couldn't understand them. They somehow felt special.  
Now knowing she was safe, she allowed herself to look around this rather strange opera as the elevator inched slowly upwards. In the back stood a huge leopard printed turret wearing a crown. Chell instantly thought of 'the animal king takeover' alerts back before She had woken and there had been nothing but a male announcer and Wheatley. The smile that had begun to form disappeared as she thought of him, sending him into space and his desperate pleas to be grabbed… she shook her head and set her jaw, choosing to focus on nothing more than the music the turrets played for her.  
Behind a row of them a single Frankencube pulled itself along haphazardly and she had to squint to see it. The elevator sped up. The opera still ringing in her ears as she traveled through the grey shaft, past a room full of debris, the shaft walls changing to an off yellow and more debris filled rooms while still the turrets sang.  
The music stopped as the elevator did, dragging out the last note as a heavy metal door swung outwards. For a brief moment Chell had to close her eyes from the bright white light that shone through. She stepped out of the elevator towards the door cautiously, bouncing slightly on the curve of her long fall boots, towards yellow plants along the ground. Walking out of the door she was met with blue sky, warm air in her face, the distant sounds of a bird chirping. She nearly lost all her composure as she reached out and touched the long yellow grass, taking in the white clouds and breathing in the air. She began to wonder if she had died back on the moon.  
A loud slam forced her to spin around, feeling like an idiot for letting her guard down even for the briefest of moments. All that stood behind her was a small metal shack, faded warning signs plastered to its door. An echoing knock rung out from within and again she tensed as the door swung open. A, no, her companion cube bounced along the ground. Its charred edges in stark contrast to the crispness of this bright place. As soon as it stopped, coming to rest on one side, the door slammed shut again and Chell bent down. Rubbing her hand along the rough edge of her cube before taking in a long, deep breath, closing her eyes briefly against the warmth of the sun.  
After a small moment of respite she hauled her blackened companion cube onto her back, grimacing at just how heavy it was. Chell began to walk slowly away from the small metal shack, casting her eyes around the open fields for anything that may come in use. It felt like an alien landscape, nothing felt right about this. After so long being inside the white walls of Aperture being outside was difficult to adjust to. There was no ominous voice insulting her from behind cameras for a start. Although before GLaDOS had awoken the place had been a jungle of potatoes and that strange male announcer, happily stating that tests were the future. And Wheatley happily talking away about escaping. She tried to force those memories from her head, at least for the time being.  
Painfully slowly she marched on through the wheat field, occasionally adjusting the weight of her companion cube on her back. Everything had begun to ache with a new vigor from the burns she had sustained at the explosion right down to the mildly irritating sore patch where the cube rested on her lower back. Chell gritted her teeth, pushing forwards and working herself through those inconveniences. Every now and again she would stop, wiping her forehead with the back of one arm while struggling to keep the dead weight on her back, casting her eyes around the expanse of gold before continuing.  
She was beginning to give up on that hope she had trained through her years at Aperture when she noticed the sun had begun to descend into the ground. Darkness crept along the ground behind her. She scowled and kept moving until, finally, she could see a dash of small lights in the distance. With renewed vigor she half ran - half bounced along the ground towards them. The yellow grass suddenly disappeared and she stumbled, dropping her charred cube. It balanced precariously on one edge before falling flat on its side with a hollow thud. Chell stared at the hard floor, she remembered this stuff. It hadn't been that long ago that she had landed flat on her stomach on this flat, smooth rock and a party associate robot had thanked her for assuming the position. Freedom had been short lived then.  
Chell broke her gaze, knowing this place was definitely different. Opposite the expanse of yellowed grass stood things that reminded her of the cryogenic sleep chambers, albeit larger. She frowned again at them, noticing that there were no panels like in the test chambers, or thick metal rails hanging from the sky. That was a small consolation, however, as a bright white light hit her beneath the roar of something robotic. Instinctively she dived for her cube, grazing her palm on the black rock, grabbing its roughened corner and rolling out of the way of the careening (and painfully screaming) robot. She felt cold, hard metal ram into her arm and shoulder and grit her teeth against the new, deep pain.  
The A.I stopped, standing over her with its two torches shining down at her, low growling emanating from its chest. Chell shuddered, exhaustion and pain winning against her desperate need to stay awake. Her vision becoming dark as she heard a click and what, for all the world, sounded like distant footsteps.


	2. Monstrous

**warning** spoilers and OC's

"Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace! I'm in space!" the excited core screamed out for the hundredth time in an hour, his bright optic flicking all around as if trying to take in all of it at once. Wheatley let out a synthesized sigh, slowly turning until the moon, again, took up all of his vision. Its surface was still splintered and almost separated where his optic was cracked.  
"If I could, ah, go back," he muttered, "I would definitely, definitely apologize. Just let her know I'm sorry, sorry for being so monstrous."  
"I'm in space, I'm in space, I'm in space," the smaller core chattered away, orbiting behind Wheatley now.  
"I know you are mate! You seem happy about it, can't say I feel the same though. I miss it you know? Not what I was expecting when I woke her up to escape. Not that I'd want go back to Her, ah, She'd probably crush me again," he half closed his shutter listening to his companion mutter about how many stars he could see, "all I see is the moon mate. Big and, and, round. Yeah. Round, like us hey?"  
"Oh oh it's a star! A star, another star, and another! So many stars, so much space!" he kept up his excited babble and Wheatley went back to his thinking.  
"Ahhh!" he cried out suddenly, not that the space core paid any attention, "I just thought about something horrible, rather nasty. Shouldn't think about that really, but… is she still alive? What if Gla… no no, don't think about that. Not nice, at all. Not at all. Oh no, now I thought of something worse," he closed his shutters but found that didn't help at all. In fact it seemed to make the thoughts worse. He opened them again, his blue optic not much larger than a pin prick through his panic, "they were friendly when I last saw them, ahh, when She was a potato anyway… would She kill… no, doing it again." he shifted the plates across his body in an attempt to distract himself, his thoughts racing through his mind, his voice unable to keep up with every one of them, "hmm, perhaps I can..? No, wont work, definitely wont.. Maybe.. Ah, no that either, hmm."  
"Bored of space. Wanna go home. Wanna go back to earth, bored of space. Too much space," muttered the yellow eyed core, his smaller grey frame coming back into Wheatleys' line of vision.  
"So do I mate," he muttered, again synthesizing a sigh, "would be bloody brilliant, to… go back to earth. Back home. But we're stuck, up here mate, in space. You should be happy. You like space don't you.. Erm, ah," he moved his upper shutter down slightly, doing a rather good impression of a frown, "never mind."  
"Space. So much space. Star. Star. Star. Star. Moon. Star. Star. Star. Star. Star…" Wheatley watched him orbit around, that yellow optic still bouncing. Another minute and the smaller core would be behind him again, chattering away about space. It had been around a month since they had been shot through that portal, the little clock inside Wheatley helped him figure out how long it had been. His shutters drooped in an unhappy grimace.  
"She didn't grab me, can't really blame her. Probably didn't want to waste her time on me, after… after what I did to her," he winced at the memories of mashy spike plates, bombs and neurotoxin, "I'd still say sorry though. Still apologize to her."

XXXX

There was a single moment where her life changed. Beth had been humming along to the radio when she had caught the woman in her headlights, standing in the middle of the road. Forcefully Beth had slammed both her feet onto the brakes, almost screaming along with the screech of tyres as the old car thudded to a halt. There was an unpleasant thud and panic rose inside her chest. With shaking hands Beth pulled the handbrake and undid her seatbelt.

"Oh god, I hit her," she mumbled. Carefully she swung the door open and jumped out, her blue eyes scanning the road before the headlights.  
The unfortunate woman lay just to the right of the front wheel, bathed in the unnatural glow the car provided. Beth ran forwards, almost tripping over herself in her haste.  
"Sweetie? Hey, are you alright? I hit you didn't I? Oh, please, please be alright," she crouched by the filth covered woman, paling at the sight of blood down her arm and splattered on the road, her injured arm wrapped around some sort of weird, slightly charred, box "oh no, oh no," Beth muttered, touching two fingers to the girls' neck, feeling relieved when she found a pulse. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a small cell phone and punched in a number.  
"Come on, pick up," she growled beneath her breath as she checked the stranger over, noting the crisscross of scars on her other arm and fading burns on her shoulders. Beth frowned and glanced around her, the phone still ringing against her ear. She could see nothing in the darkness that hinted to where this young woman had come from. But she could easily check later.  
"Hello?" came a cool, smooth voice from the phone. Beth almost dropped it, his voice sounding far too loud in this darkness, even with the cars' engine still running behind her.  
"Ah, John! I've, I've had an accident… come up to route 12... Hurry!"  
"Beth?" he answered as calmly as ever, "are you hurt?"  
"No, no not me. I, ah, I hit someone! She came out of nowhere!" tears began to form in her eyes and she found her hands shaking more than ever, "please, just hurry!"  
"Right you are. Stay on the phone, ok?" she nodded, although she was well aware he couldn't see her, she put one hand over her mouth as she looked down at the girl with increasing worry. She heard John talking to someone else, the sounds muffled as he half covered the receiver, "alright. I'm on my way. How bad does it look?" A moment later she heard a car door slam shut on his end and an engine start to run in the background.  
"Her, her shoulder and arm are bleeding… there's some other injuries too," Beth answered, trying to keep her voice steady, "she's unconscious… I, I don't know what to do!"  
"Just stay calm," he told her coolly, "I think I see your headlights."

Just moments later the usually quiet road was packed with activity. John had parked his van just behind Beth's car, he and two women were out of it even as she struggled to press the little red button to disconnect the call. One of them, Beth recognized as Angie the mechanic and occasional helper of the good doctor, opened her car door and shut off the engine and lights. She smiled down at Beth and offered an arm. She willingly took it, leaning a little on the larger woman as shock made her knees clack together and set her lips quivering.  
John, a rather muscled man, was trying to pry the burnt box from the strangers arm. He grunted a little and let out a small laugh as Susan, his assistant, cleaned the worst wound on her shoulder.  
"Strong one here," John grinned at the unconscious form while patting the cube, "Angie, get the board would you?"  
"You alright?" Angie asked, looking to Beth as she sat in the drivers seat of her old car. Beth simply nodded, momentarily lost for words. Angie gave a thumbs up and dashed around to the back of the van, light on her feet for a woman of her stature. She pulled the board out, pulling down wheels from beneath it and running over to John.  
Beth watched them through her windscreen, her legs still dangling out of the car, as they lifted the girl onto the board. It surprised her to see that the charred box was still being grasped tightly in that injured arm. The others struggled a bit to lay her on the board with the awkward weight she gripped. After a few moments they finally had it sorted, the cube to one side of the unconscious girl. John nodded at Angie as he and the other woman began pushing the makeshift trolley towards the waiting van.  
Once again Beth found herself with the tougher woman by her side.  
"They'll drive her back and see what they can do," Angie spoke briskly, motioning over to the passengers' side of the car, "move along. I'll drive you back. Best to get yourself checked over too," Beth nodded, knowing better than to try and argue that she was fine. If she looked anything like she felt she knew the others would quickly be able to tell. She lifted herself over the gearbox, slumping into the seat and shakily buckling herself in although the drive was ridiculously short. Angie slammed the drivers side door shut a little too forcefully, Beth winced at the small groan the metal gave.  
"Will she be alright? I didn't mean to hit her. And what happened to her? She looked like she has other injuries, other than… than this…" Angie raised her hand as she restarted the car, swinging around sharply to follow Johns' van, causing Beth to grasp desperately at her seat belt.  
"You worry too much. She's in good hands," Angie grinned, her foot not leaving the accelerator. Beth already regretted letting her drive.  
"I.. I know that. We all trust John, he's a good doctor, caring and everything… but… well… where did she come from? Who is she? And, and what is that box thing she's holding onto?" Angie tapped the brakes, stopping the car more carefully than her usual driving methods. In front John was already pulling the board, mystery patient and her box towards Susan, who held open the door to the one story building that served as the hospital.  
"Come on," Angie was heaving herself out of the door, dangling the car keys and leaving her questions unanswered. Beth reached out and took them from her, slipping out of her door with only a little more grace than the stout mechanic. She wobbled on her feet and placed a hand on the roof of her car to steady herself.  
Angie grabbed her arm, giving her a wide smile. Beth again leaned on her, thankful for the support as her legs still shook from the panic of the accident. Together they hobbled inside of the hospital, the larger woman shouldering the door open. Beth let go of her.  
"Thanks… I think I'm alright now. Ah, I'll… go put make some coffee. Let me know how she… the mystery girl is doing wont you?" she smiled thinly and took a deep breath before stumbling her way to the kitchen area down the hall. She passed the first room, glimpsing John and Susan leaning over the girl with gauze and water. Angie gave a grunt behind her before the door opened and she disappeared inside.  
"Beth's' going to make drinks,"  
"Hmm. Angie, pass the alcohol would you?" John spoke smoothly and slowly, as if the whole world would wait around them.  
"Is she alright?" Susan piped up, her voice soft and gentle.  
"Here you go. You mean Beth? She'll be fine!" Angie laughed heartily. Beth moved away from their filtered voices, opening the door to the kitchenette. She picked up the kettle and absentmindedly filled it from the tap, almost to the point of overflow. Flicking the switch and watching as the water slowly began to bubble inside the small window.  
For just a moment all seemed calm and Beth was able to begin collecting her thoughts. She grimaced.  
"Definitely shouldn't think about it," she murmured to her hands, spreading them out on the cool, wooden surface before her. A sudden, loud crash and ear piercing shriek made her jump and spin around, slamming a hand against the edge of the sink, "Ohh, ouch. That hurts!" she grimaced, clutching it to her chest and staring towards he door, "what on earth..?"


	3. Mistaken identities

**warning** spoilers and some OC's.

The first thing Chell saw when she opened her eyes was a short, white and incredibly blurry shape near her feet. A glow of red focused on her from the middle of its smooth shape.  
"Hello?" it questioned in a familiarly sweet, musical voice. Without tearing her eyes from where the turret stood she felt around besides her, her hand running over the rough edge of her companion cube. Without a second thought Chell pulled it close, lifting it high and aimed as best she could.  
"Wha…" she heard from her side as she threw her charred cube at the turret with as much force as she could muster. Her injured arm screamed in protest and her vision swam, but a satisfying thunk told her she had hit the target. The turret screamed in manufactured pain that sounded all too real and, when no gun fire rang out, she hastily sat up. Chell grabbed her head in an attempt to stop the room from spinning, looking to where the turret and her cube lay. Perhaps it had been one of the singing robots?  
There was more movement around her and, as her vision cleared, she watched with shock and mild horror. These were people, not turrets or cores, real living people.  
A tall, muscular man bent to help the woman in a white, sleeveless hooded top up. Emblazoned on the front was a symbol in red Chell did not recognize. It was more of a star shape than a circle. She felt ridiculous for mistaking that as an optic.  
Tears streamed down the small womans' pale, slender face as she stared at Chell accusingly, rubbing the forming black and purple bruise on the nook of her bare arm. A rougher, almost square shaped woman leant so close to Chells' face that she was forced to lean back on the pillow. She scowled, her dark brown eyes narrowing.  
"What did you do that for!?" she demanded with a half growl, her face becoming red with anger and spittle flying in all directions.  
"Angie," came the deep, slow voice of the man stood somewhere to her right. The heavyset woman backed up, looking around at the man but said nothing more, her cheeks puffing out as she snarled beneath her breath, "You're a strong one." he continued, his pale eyes flicking to Chell as he helped the turret woman sit on a plastic chair in the corner. He gave a small smile and moved closer to the bed. She remained still, focusing her determined, grey eyes on him and away from the turret and her rather angry associate, "we want to help." he added, nodding once and looking down the bridge of his wide nose at her.  
Angie scoffed, stepping around to the still sniveling turret woman. Without a word she pulled the girl up, angry face softening as she patted the tiny woman in white, giving one last glare at Chell before she turned and marched out of the room. The turret look-alike wiped her eyes on the back of her un-bruised arm and followed along. The door didn't obey Angie's need for a dramatic exit, instead closing slowly behind the two of them.  
"Hmm. We…" the calm man started, allowing them to leave and taking his time. He was cut off by the brisk, and apparently still fuming, voice of Angie's from beyond the door.  
"Oh its all going on around here! Your mystery woman just threw that box at Susan!" she practically roared. There was a shuffling sound and the door started to open.  
"Sorry! Really, I mean… I know I, ah, didn't throw it but…well, if I hadn't hit her... this is my fault," Chell frowned at the recognizable accent slightly as the woman just beyond the door continued murmuring apologies to the two others.  
"Don't worry! I'm alright! Thank you!" chirped the turret woman in that sweet voice of hers, the sound slowly becoming more distant as, presumably, she and Angie moved away. Chell kept staring at the door as it swung fully open. A young looking woman entered, fairly tall and gangly, her long strawberry blonde hair tied in a thick plait that hung over her shoulder. Two bright blue eyes danced beneath a small pair of glasses.  
"Ah!" she exclaimed, eyes widening a little, "You're awake. And, you look great! You know… considering," she smiled warmly, her eyelids half closing as it formed but she didn't move any closer. The similarities in that voice and face were almost too much for Chell, it took all of her strength not to move and just keep up her stare.  
"We stitched your arm while you were asleep. Let me know if it hurts," the man cut in, with a matter of fact tone, giving a nod to the plaited girl. He leant back a little, crossing his arms in front of his wide chest.  
"Erm, yes. I'm sorry sweetie, didn't mean to hurt you. Really. Completely my fau… Ahhmmmf!" Chell was out of the bed in a flash, hand tightly clasped over the woman's mouth, staring into those bright blue eyes. There was a hint of fear in them. Slowly she moved her hand away, giving a small nod when the woman remained silent. Fear in those clear blue eyes that were so similar to his optic… she felt her heart sink, it wasn't something she wanted to see. And certainly not caused by her. The tall man stepped slowly, almost cautiously, towards them. A mildly worried look on his face. In contrast to the woman his emotions seemed more guarded and his movements gentle and full of purpose.  
"What's your name?" he asked slowly, trying to move between the two women. He pointed to himself, "I'm John Sinclair. The doctor here," Chell stayed quiet, not trusting her barely used voice or the people in the room, trust was something they would have to earn.  
The strawberry blonde woman squirmed slightly, her mouth twitching as if she wanted to talk (or needed to). After a very brief moment of silence that she obviously found hard to handle, her mouth opened, her cheeks flushing a light pink as a torrent of words spilled forth.  
"Yes, he's the doctor here. We trust him so that means you can too. OK? He's a good man and so are Angie and Susan, well, obviously not men. But people! Yeah, they're good people. And I'm really sorry for what happened, sweetie, really didn't see you there," Chell listened carefully, as she was prone to do, noticing the only real differences were the femininity in the voice and the use of 'sweetie', she raised a finger and pointed at the girls chest, "Ahhh! What are you doing? Erm, wait… you want to know my name right?" Chell gave the slightest nod, lowering her finger and waiting. The girl looked pleased with herself for understanding the simple gesture, her eyes shining a little, "Right! Of course! Knew that's what you wanted. Erm, yes, my name is Bethany Wheatley, everyone calls me Beth though. Don't have much of a… WOAHWHATAREYOUDOI…" there was a hint of nervous laughter as Chell grabbed her shoulders, perhaps too roughly, frowning ever so slightly at her, "What's' the matter sweetie? Sorry, I know, I talk a lot. Is it annoying you? People say it makes me sound like an idiot…"  
"No one thinks that Beth," John cut in, reaching out and very lightly taking one of Chell's arms, attempting to move it from the taller woman's shoulder. Beth chuckled.  
"They do," she looked down at the carpet, "the teenagers at work have called me a moron… but anyway, doesn't matter now does it. What matters is you sweetie, you have to rest. You know, I… hurt you right? Didn't mean to! Complete accident! I'll shut up now yeah? Must be annoying, listening to me going on and on, not letting you get a word in edge-ways oh, wait. Can you speak?" her eyes darted around the room, "oh! I know! Can you say apple?" Chells' shoulders rocked in silent mirth, releasing Beth from her grip.  
This couldn't be real right? Probably some strange dream caused by neurotoxin or from being in an explosion, or on the moon. Didn't moon rocks cause some sort of illness? Was 'insanity' included in that? Probably, considering how Cave Johnson had ranted about lemons after he had become poisoned by them. She sat carefully on the edge of her bed, staring up at the female 'Wheatley' and the doctor, she rubbed the side of her head with one palm. Both John and Beth watched her with curiosity in their eyes.  
"Come on Beth, lets go make her something to eat. Then perhaps you'll run her a bath," John spoke, taking the other woman's arm gently in his huge hand and leading her out of the room, the door closing silently behind them.  
"Will she be alright? Something is off isn't it and…"  
"Lets not worry about that now," the two contrasting voices became more muffled and distant as they moved away from the door. Chell looked down at herself. Her tank top and jumpsuit both strained in blood, some old and some still drying. Her long-fall boots still strapped to her feet and her skin covered in grime, blood and dust. She checked the companion cube was still on the ground, but didn't make a move to retrieve it. She was certain the conversion gel, and other elements surrounding Aperture, had given her a mild form of serious brain damage. For real this time around.

XXX

The earth was coming back into his cracked vision. All that blue, green and white just made him feel more homesick. If cores could get homesick.  
"Really wish I could go back," he muttered, "its so dull up here. Nothing but space and stars, and the moon," he half closed his shutters, looking for the eighth time through his inbuilt data bank. but he was only half interested in what they stored, "a deer," he hummed, "not much written on them. But they have, ah, antlers and eat grass. Can't imagine why She seemed so interested in them myself."  
"What's your favorite thing about space?" the smaller core orbited in front of him, blocking his view of the earth with his excited yellow optic.  
"No mate, talking about deers, deer… hmm what's the plural? Never mind, what where you talking about? Ah, that's right... Can't say I like this place as much as you. Just us two, floating around, forever, in space. Least you're happy, hey?" his shutters dropped as he felt sadness and regret well up inside himself again.  
"Mine is space," the other core whispered and quickly continued, "ba ba ba baba bababa, space, baba ba babababa bababa,"  
"I know mate, you've said. You love space," Wheatley muttered, watching as the smaller core orbited, now only half blocking the sight of the earth, "your spinning is making me seasick mate," he added, something flashing near the clock in his optic. He choose to ignore it.  
"Oh! Play it cool, here come the space cops, here come the space cops,"  
"No no, still only me and you up here. Nothing else for miles, except the moon. Not sure how far away from it we are now, but looks bloody massive,"  
"Wait, wait I know… wait… I know, wait, wait, wait, wait… space cops," he babbled, "gonna go to space jail… wanna go home, earth, earth, earth, earth."  
"Earth. Be nice to go back, really, I understand mate. But still no space cops, still just us…" the annoying flashing started again and he felt something he wasn't aware of before pulling inside his hull. His optic widened, shutters flying open as far as they would go, "What's that? Wait, what's happening?" he glanced up to the smaller core who, somehow in the last minute or so, had managed to break orbiting Wheatley and had, in fact, moved closer to earth. He felt the pulling sensation again, "Gaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhh!" he cried in wild panic as the feeling became stronger, his blue optic flying around, "nothing I can do… what's going to happen to us mate? I don't want to die!" He began to shake a little in his hull with the fear building up in his processors.  
"I love you spaaaaaaaaace!" the smaller core yelled excitably, he didn't appear to be moving any further away now. Wheatley almost felt relieved his companion hadn't left, but couldn't muster up anything other than a burning panic as that pulling became stronger and stronger. The earth appeared to be growing at an alarming rate.  
"Just a trick of the mind, mate, we'll be alright! Stuck here in space isn't so bad. Better than being dead or, or in android hell," he chuckled nervously, "ahhh! Its still there, pulling at, at something… "  
"Going home. Going home. Earth, earth! Yaaahoooooo! I'm a meteor!" the other core shouted excitably, the blue planet still growing larger in his optic.  
"Ho..home?! Wait… it's.. its pulling us home?!" Wheatley started to laugh, "I'm going home! This is bloody brilliant! We're going back to earth!" for once he felt he could join in with his companions joy.  
That was until he realized just how big the earth was and, sooner or later, he would have to hit something, "didn't think this through, definitely didn't... ahhh! Oh, shouldn't think about it!" there was a sudden eruption of sound as he and the space core hit the earths atmosphere. Wind rushed past their hulls, intense heat shot over the metal, "Ahhh! Oh no! This is bad, really bad! I don't want to die!" he could barely hear himself think yet alone speak, as he and space core burnt a trail through the sky and punched holes in clouds. Panicking now, and not wanting to see death creep up on him, he slammed his shutters closed.  
The wind whistling past his sensors was cut off by a loud crash and pain filled every inch of his small body. And then he felt himself falling again. Maybe a little slower this time. Still he kept his eye closed,he could feel the definite sensation of spinning. He hit and bounced off a few more things, not once daring to open his shutters, each jolt made him shudder and yelp in pain. Finally he hit something harder than whatever else he had crashed into and rolled to a stop.  
Slowly and very carefully he opened his shutters, twitching his handles. His optic narrowed as he realized the bottom one was bent in the middle and had snapped on one side.  
"No, no. Ooh it hurts, quite a lot actually," he whimpered, shuddering and sparking where he lay. He'd almost missed that spark in the stretches of space, that was until he remembered what had caused it in the first place. He looked up to see the ground and down to see panels some distance away. Most of them were white but here and there was a splattering of blue, "I'm home…" he muttered quietly, both in wonder and fear at what may lay ahead if She saw him, "I'm really back here, back home," he laughed, mostly nervously, "hey, mate… erm, you there? Say something? Anything? We're not in space anymore," he flicked his optic around to find the smaller core. After a moment Wheatley heard him, his voice echoing around the chamber from somewhere behind him.  
"Space, not in space. Back home. Dad I went to space. I'm proud of you son," the space core forced his voice to sound deeper, as if mimicking something he had heard before. Wheatley sighed with relief.  
"I'll be honest, really glad you're alright. Had me worried for a minute there," he sparked again, looking around the (almost) pristine test chamber, "good to be back, not so great being on the ground. Unable to move and, ah, upside down, but," he mimicked the sound of breathing in deeply, "still nice to be back, here. Lets just hope She doesn't find us and, and kill us. Wouldn't put it past her. At all. Maybe we'll be lucky and, erm, someone… else… will find us hey…" he hummed a bit, sparking and twitching on his back. The space core mumbling about wanting to go back to space somewhere behind him.


	4. Failure and Moonlight

***warning*** spoilers, OC's

"Blue, do what Orange just did," GLaDOS rocked a little in her chassis, eagerly watching the screen before her. It was almost in her grasp, after all that effort. The two co-operative testing robots looked at each other before giving one another a hug. The door light activated,much to Her surprise, "you did it!" She cheered, trying to keep her excitement down just enough so the two A.I's would not pick too much on it. Now the lock had been opened she finally had this part of the facility under her control. She activated the door, watching the monitor as the huge vault opened, releasing steam from its locks. The two robots chattered at each other in mild confusion, blinking their optics upwards. She watched them bounce along on their metal feet across the catwalk when the vault door had finally opened, "you did it! You really did it!" she greedily and joyfully took in the forms of thousands of people lined up across the expanse of metal shelves. Their bodies floating in goo, preserved from all those years ago. "All your testing was worth it! Just look at all those test subjects! Think of all the testing! You saved science!" there was no hiding her glee now, she even began to feel a little proud of these two. She narrowed her optic as they began dancing on the catwalk excitably, perhaps she shouldn't have given them such high praise.

"Enough celebrating, we have more work to do," She said, a little sterner than before. They chirped, jumped and gave each other a high five completely ignoring her. GLaDOS shook her head towards the screen, immensely irritated, and exploded them where they stood. She could always reassemble them later, "let the science begin!" her optic turned back to the lines of humans all just waiting to be tested.

She set the controls on their rails, lifting each pod down to a scanner that would check vital life signs, brain activity and their files. It was hard for Her to contain her excitement. Without that dangerous, adopted mute here things had certainly been quieter and She had been able to continue testing in peace. But Orange and Blue just hadn't provided enough data on the tests. After all, She had programmed them to enjoy each chamber and, with no fear of permanent death from either of them, the data She had collected had all been worthless. However, they had come in useful, helping Her gain access here where She had been able to reach before.  
GLaDOS felt satisfied for approximately 1.2264 seconds as the scanner fed back its information on the pods occupants.  
"You can't be serious," Her chassis rocked as the reality of the situation became all too clear. The preservation gel had stopped working, instead becoming something more akin to vinegar, practically pickling all those humans in their little clear cases. The scanner continued its work, feeding back the information, She searched through all of them. And finally let out a synthesized sigh of relief, "thank god," she rocked back a little, watching as the scanner kept going. It only took a few minutes to complete its task and, out of all those potential test subjects, only eight had shown weak life signs. But not one of them appeared to have any brain activity. Well, another brain damaged test subject might work, as long as it wasn't as dangerous as the last one. Still, it was better than nothing.  
GLaDOS choose a pod containing a fairly strong looking male with a shaven head. Carefully she set the controls of the pod, draining out the preservation gel and opening the glass door.  
"Welcome to Apertu…" She started, the man fell face forwards onto the catwalk before him, unmoving. She rolled her optic, sending a claw down there and picking the man up around his wide shoulders. His head rolled to one side. So she shook him, for science.  
An hour later Her frustration was becoming more apparent. After accidentally managing to kill three of the remaining test subjects She had reassembled Orange and Blue. The forth, a woman with short black hair and eyes that looked in the wrong directions, was currently being propped up by Orange. Blue was waving in her face. GLaDOS groaned, being sure not to broadcast it around the enrichment center The life functions of this female slowly stopped and Orange joined in with Blue's waving.  
That left her with four remaining. She wondered how it had been so easy to kill the first four when killing that overweight mute had been so difficult. Even her science filled data banks held nothing on that. GLaDOS almost heard a hint of laughter somewhere in Her programming. She instructed the two robots to tip the body into an acid pit, leaning back in her chamber to mull things over.  
Breaking her concentration from the idea of testing with all those test subjects She was able to notice the small warning flashing on a distant monitor. Narrowing her yellow optic she brought the feed up and read through it.  
'Recall apparatus 1 initiated. Recalling. Please hold. Contact made. Please hold for confirmation from…' GLaDOS didn't need to read any more to know what it meant. That little moron and the defective core had been returned. She checked the time the warning had popped up, shuddering in her chassis when it read the day before. Around the time She had sent Orange and Blue to fetch that password. She had been too distracted in the information the scientists had thought they had hidden from Her to notice. Again GLaDOS checked the warning note. It told her exactly where that little idiot was, and the damage (albeit minor) the two had caused on their re-entry.  
"Orange, Blue. I have an important test for you," She said to the camera, seeing the two of them had returned from her disposal task, "Go to test chamber 12. There are two things in there I want you to retrieve," they looked at each other, chirped a few times and began to wave at the camera, "now," she barked, narrowing her optic. The taller A.I hopped away down the catwalk, the smaller one chattering angrily and following along.  
GLaDOS waited, watching them running off noisily. She turned the camera back on in test chamber 12, turning it slightly so that she could see the metal balls.

XXX

Chell had followed Beth (who had been waiting in her room, setting up books on a small table near the corner) after the welcome bath and change of clothes she had provided. It felt strange but comfortable without her long-fall boots and, without their support, she realized just how much smaller than Beth she was. The taller red-head kept asking about the stitches in her arm and the other scars that riddled the skin she could see. Chell had just shrugged and smiled. That was enough to stop her curiosity for the time being.  
John had pointed out a seat to them both when they entered the other room, a plate of steaming food waiting there. She watched as they began to eat with the silver coloured tools Susan provided. After an initial struggle with the fork she managed to get the food on there, and stay there, simply by watching the others.  
She couldn't remember a time she had eaten so well. The last meal she could remember was so long ago and had been long before she had killed GLaDOS the first time. Nutrients had probably been given to her in some form, not that she had been aware of it.  
Susan had scooted over to her side, dragging her plate across the wooden table and sitting in the free seat next to her.  
"I don't blame you," she started, motioning to the vicious bruise on her thin arm, almost making Chell choke on a piece of meat, "surrounded by strangers. Anyone would be afraid," she smiled brightly and Chell gave a very slight nod, rather than attempt to explain in any way. Her time at Aperture (and all its technology) would remain a secret.  
Chell had taken a moment to study the people in the room. Susan had dropped her hood down, not that it made much difference, her hair was almost white itself. Her eyes such a pale blue they may well have had no colour and laughter lines had crept onto her, otherwise young, face. Across the table John chewed his food thoughtfully. She noticed that he had lines on his face too, small creases resembling birds feet at the corners of his eyes. His hair was dark and cut short, a hint of grey beginning to show along his temples. Beth was probably the youngest out of the group.  
Chell shoved some more of the mushy off-yellow stuff in her mouth. It was strange to think that she was likely older than all of them. Angie had already left, saying something about a call from someone across town to fix their car, shortly after the whole incident with the companion cube. (She'd kept muttering and growling to herself, slamming the front door as she went.) Not that Chell was keen on knowing too much about the stout woman. Angie unnerved her more than she wanted to admit.  
John gave her another warm smile as she ate while Beth was quietly chewing each mouthful carefully, as if she were afraid of choking.  
"That's my favorite too," Susan chuckled as she lifted more of the puréed food towards her mouth, "I love potatoes."  
Chell paused, the fork an inch from her lips, tilting her head the tiniest amount and giving a small frown to the friendly, older woman.  
"Mashed potato," Susan returned the frown and pointed at the food sat on the end of Chells' fork. She almost dropped it to the floor but, instead, slowly lowered it and pushed her plate away. She stood just as carefully.  
"What's wrong?" John asked, his hands paused mid-way through their act of cutting a chunk of meat. Chell shook her head and backed out of the room.  
"Sweetie?" she saw Beth stand, dropping her cutlery to her plate with a clatter.  
She dashed out of the room, feeling incredibly guilty. Back in the bowels of Aperture she had been so hungry she had been tempted to take a bite out of the potato battery, then later the fear as she thought of herself and GLaDOS being crushed by a mashy spike plate. She had simply ruined her appetite by thinking of her enemy come friend pulped up and sat on her plate. Chell moved quickly back into what the others had all immediately dubbed her room, trying to regain her composure.  
"What's the matter? You've gone really pale, did your food taste bad?" Beth asked, her voice tripping over her own voice. Her bright blue eyes were wide with worry. Chell felt really stupid, over the years she had learnt to control her emotions but two simple words had caused her to be like this. She almost laughed.  
"S…sorry," she whispered, wincing a little at the sound of her unused voice.  
"Oh, you have nothing to be sorry for! Really, I just got a little worried. You went white as a sheet and just ran out…" the flood of words slowed as Chell made her way to the window, leaning on its frame and looking into its black glass at her own reflection, "you can speak! Oh that's brilliant sweetie! But, are you alright?" Beth followed her, leaning the side of her face on the window and squinting. Chell gave a nod and thin smile back, but said nothing more.  
"Look, the moons out. Kind of hard to see though," Beth moved away and the room was plunged into semi-darkness. The only interior light coming from the partially open door behind them, the full moon lighting what else it could, the pale glow reaching in through the glass, "pretty right?"  
Chell squinted, her eyes darting in an attempt to spot Wheatley, although the chances of seeing him at this distance was low. For all she knew he could be on the other side of it by now. She pressed her hands and nose against the cold glass of the window, determined she would catch a glimpse, a sign, anything of him. Beth stood besides her, with a quizzical look on her face.  
"Told you it was pretty…" she said after a few minutes, "do you want me to turn the light back on? Its getting late and I should get home. You should get some sleep too, so maybe leave it off, yeah?" Chell nodded her head, eyes still glued to the round glow, hands now resting on the window pane. She had almost thought she'd caught a glimpse of a tiny black shape in front of it and her heart ached, "ah, alright," Beth moved away and Chell could hear her moving across the room, a small thud as she hit something, "Ow, there's a table there. Make sure you sleep. Must have been a long day for you, I know it was for me. Well, good night mystery girl!" she heard the door close and the sliver of light it had provided disappeared.  
Chell stayed where she was, staring out the window until a yawn escaped her. She rubbed her dry eyes to try to keep them open, only succeeding in making them ache more. Without the adrenal vapor being pumped into the air it was physically too hard to stay awake. Giving one last, wistful look to the moon she made her way to the bed. She threw back the covers, able to hear the quiet, muffled sounds of voices down the hall and then someone passed her room. The front door closing loudly, but not as noisily as when Angie had left. Her body ached with exhaustion and she soon fell asleep, immediately starting a fitful night of bad dreams.


	5. For science

He found it a little disorientating being upside down and, after the initial excitement of hurtling through space, he could now feel just how damaged he was. Some of his processors refused to work completely and the spark had become more violent. Every part of him hurt but at least space core kept him company, of a sort, chattering inanely about what he'd seen while orbiting the moon.  
"Been thinking, what if she's still here?" he said through the agony that coursed through his small body, trying to distract himself from it, "Can't see Her letting the poor lady go really. Can imagine Her killing…" he shook his handles to stop that thought, sending that thick agony throughout his hull once again, "ow, still painful. Very painful… Anyway, lets just say, if she isn't dead, I can finally apologize to her. That would be brilliant," he chuckled a little, his voice processor beeping warning signs at him. He ignored them, only stopping as the movement of his shutters caused more pain, "not that I think she'd want to see me. After what I did to her. Really wouldn't blame her…" he felt heavier than usual, although he couldn't figure out how he had gained enough weight to crush his insides while laying there.  
"I saw a star, and another star, nebula, star, moon, more stars, so much space," the other core talked away.  
Wheatley again tried to move his optic to see him, causing more pain in his processors. He sparked and twitched, shuddering a little at the agony even that caused.  
"Been here for a while now," he continued in his feeble attempt at distracting himself, going back to staring at a blue patch on the wall, "wonder if She's even using this chamber? With any luck She isn't and doesn't know we're here. That would be good, ah, although I can't say its much less boring than being in orbit…"  
"Moron, I am aware of where you are. In fact, I've got a surprise for you. With confetti," Her voice echoed around the chamber, stopping his train of thought. Wheatley's optic became nothing more than a pin prick of blue. He nervously glanced around, sparking again, panic and terror setting into his frazzled systems.  
"Ah, good to hear you… yeah… you sound good! After being a pota… no, no, forget I said that!" he spoke in high pitched fear, too scared to take much notice of the moron comment, even more so now he wasn't so massive.  
He heard the tell-tale sound of a door opening off to the side of him, although he still couldn't see far enough. The smaller core started mumbling about space cops and jail again, a few more sounds Wheatley recognized echoing in the chamber from the doorway. The high pitched chatter followed by the deeper rumble of the two co-operative testing robots.  
"Oh, I recognize you. You're those…" he began, cut off again as GLaDOS spoke.  
"Orange, Blue, to continue this test you need the Intelligence Dampening Sphere," Wheatley shuddered, wishing he could make himself appear smaller than he already was, "and the defective core. The rest of the test is in my chamber," that last sentence sent a new wave of fear through Wheatley. He sparked again as a pair of metal hands picked him up, turning him over. He was met by another blue optic.  
"Hello mate, ATLAS, wasn't it? I.. ah, WHAA!" Blue dropped him back onto the ground unceremoniously. He winced as he hit, fully snapping one handle off (the other only slightly bent, by some miracle) and rolled onto his side, "that wasn't very nice, hurt quite a bit you know…" but the A.I wasn't listening, instead taking the space core from P-Body. He could hear them behind him, chattering away with space core still complaining about the space cops. Orange strode daintily around and picked Wheatley up, curving her optic up in a smile, "ah, thanks, erm, P-Body right?" he sparked again as she tucked him under one arm, waving her portal gun towards Blue.  
After they had spent a few minutes messing around and looking more human than they should, the co-operative testers took the cores back along the ridiculously high catwalks and towards Her chamber. Wheatley found himself becoming more and more panicked with each step they took. Partly due to the distance he could fall if he were dropped but mostly at the thought of what GLaDOS might do to him.  
A few minutes later (although it felt more like a lifetime to him) he found himself staring up into Her yellow optic.  
"Well done Blue, you've earned 50 science collaboration points. Orange, you've lost 100," GLaDOS spoke. P-Body chattered angrily towards ATLAS, who looked rather smug and pleased with himself. GLaDOS swiveled in her chassis, bringing out what looked like nothing more than a large, glass bin with one metal claw. The testing A.I's trotted over to it, dropping the space core and Wheatley inside. He winced again as he hit the bottom, partly closing his shutters and glancing around Her chamber.  
He saw P-Body and ATLAS high five each other and begin dancing before they each blew up in controlled explosions. His optic widened in horror but, for now, he could not talk though his fear and pain.  
GLaDOS moved her head closer, glaring down at him, making him shake even more. He had almost forgotten just how big that body made Her, or what it had made him do. Being this close was a lot more nerve-wracking than it had been when he had accidentally woken Her.

"You know," she almost growled at him, her optic narrowed, "I could throw you into the incinerator, or into the room I built where all the robots scream at you. But," she pulled away ever so slightly, completely ignoring the space core's almost constant babble, "I know how much you love testing. So I have decided to put your moronic mind to use," She turned away from him, her attention going to a screen too far away for Wheatley to see.  
"You want me to test?" he questioned with a shaky voice, sparking yet again, "sorry luv, but I don't have arms, or legs. Can't really hold the, ah, portal device or… or do much of anything really," he tried to laugh nervously but his processor for it seemed to have shut itself down.  
"Oh, that can be fixed. With science," GLaDOS chuckled, not bothering to look back at him and sending a shiver running over his hull, "and don't worry. It will hurt, I'll make sure of that." The metal claw that served as a hand, still hanging above the glass bin, twitched and swung downwards. With an eager speed She grabbed him, pulling him up. His optic flicked about, as wide as it could get, unwilling to meet Her gaze.  
"W-what are you going to do?" he stammered, desperation in his voice. He saw a red warning across flash his optic as he sparked again. She chuckled, swinging the arm around her chamber. Another metal claw lowered from the ceiling, panels shifting and moving to allow it through. This one clasped some sort of pod and Wheatley saw a green liquid bubbling around a tall, yet somehow pathetic, looking human.  
"Now, there's no way to know if this will work," there was an undeniable amount of glee in Her voice as She set the pod on the ground.  
Still holding the petrified Wheatley She used her free claw to pull a wire from behind the pod, forcefully shoving it into the plug on his back. He yelped in pain and whimpered, watching as She focused on the screen attached to the pod. He watched Her shakily, occasionally sparking and twitching. That warning still flashing in his optic. He started to feel numb where, before, there had been pain.  
"That's no good," She said, suddenly focusing Her optic back on him, "I'm not entirely sure this will work, but I want you to feel it, moron."  
"I am not a moro… NAAAAAAARRGGGGGGGGGGHH!" he cried, the pain sensors fully back online. He tried screaming again as the torture continued but was met with nothing but a hiss of static as his voice processor gave up and shut down. GLaDOS chuckled at him as the warning light disappeared, replaced with a new alert. It asked him something but he was in too much agony to even read it, much less think what it was. He squirmed in Her claw, his thoughts momentarily turning to Chell and the lack of apologizing he had done since his return. He sparked violently, darkness was the last thing he was aware of as his last system gave up entirely.

XXX

GLaDOS stared down at the empty shell of the core that, seconds ago, had been the little moron. If Her experiment hadn't worked She had just lost the chance to punish the idiot for turning Her into a potato and nearly destroying Her facility. She opened some panels, flinging his small, dead, hull out into the abyss beyond. She didn't really care where he ended up, it simply didn't matter anymore. His core body was dead and useless. She turned Her attention back to the pod and the tall human within. She had two more male bodies at Her disposal, and one female. This one, however, had simply looked less likely to be able to survive Her tests. His hair was a short but messy strawberry blonde, his body made up in height what it lacked in muscles. Even the boxer shorts it wore looked ridiculous. It suited the moron perfectly.  
She began the procedure for draining the preservation gel, keeping a processor on the vital functions of its inhabitant. For 56.29 seconds after emptying the pod of its fluid absolutely nothing happened. The human just stared blankly out of the glass. Then his blue eyes opened wide and panicked, he reached up and grabbed at his throat. His hands not quite doing what he obviously wanted them to do. His mouth flapping open unattractively.  
GLaDOS watched as he crumpled to his knees and finally lay, in a messy heap, inside of the pod. She opened the door, sending the man sprawling out on Her chamber floor, his face an unnatural shade of bright red. To be safe She picked him up (as he still couldn't grasp the concept of staying alive) and dropped him back into the glass bin with the still babbling space core.  
"Moron. Breathing is a natural part of being human," She said calmly. His eyes looked up at Her, almost pleading for help. She rolled her optic, "suck in," there was an audible gasp from the pile of limbs and the man shuddered, gasping and sucking in air erratically. It took him a good half an hour to get breathing right.  
"You know," She said slowly, lowering Her head and fixing him with the yellow of Her optic, "if you can't even get that right, perhaps I should just kill you now," he flailed on the ground, his arms and legs all going in the opposite directions. She found it quite amusing.  
"No…" he breathed, his voice sounding hoarse, "no, I'll be.. I'll be fine… testing! Wait.. I'm a what now?" his voice told Her that the little experiment had worked.  
"A human. A rather unattractive, almost naked one," She answered curtly. The now human Wheatleys' face flushed pink and his shoulders began to twitch, goose bumps appearing over his skin. He tried to hug himself, looking frustrated at the limbs that didn't do as he asked.  
"I'm a…" he started, his voice shaking and teeth clattering, "oh, its cold. Really very, very cold. You don't have any of those, what do humans call them, clothes do you?" She was happy to see there was still fear in those blue eyes.  
"All test participants must wear Aperture jumpsuits provided for them," She said, moving another panel on the ceiling and dropping another claw in. This one held a rail of bright orange jumpsuits. They were supposed to be fresh clean ones, but half had been chewed at by moths and perhaps mice. She dropped the rail in front of Wheatley, choose one that was roughly his size, and dangled it over his head. The moron grabbed at it, although it was close enough for him to reach easily he missed eight times before finally taking the material.  
"Erm…" he started, staring down at the clothes, "I'll just put this on then,"  
GLaDOS gave up watching him struggle after 9.45 minutes, reassembled Blue and Orange and going back to testing. A little voice in the back of Her mind telling Her to help Wheatley. She narrowed her optic as she stared into the screen feeding the co-operative tests, searching for and soon finding the nuisance in her systems.  
"Caroline deleted," the cheerful male voice announced from an unseen speaker.  
"What, who's Caroline?" the moron asked from behind Her, She could still hear him struggling. Grunting and cursing under his breath at the jumpsuit. GLaDOS didn't answer him, Her attention back on the testing, "ah, shouldn't ask then? Right? OK. Nothing to do with me. You… ah, go back to what you were doing…"


	6. Between a rock and a hard place

Chell woke in the night, an unsettling feeling washing over her. She sat up in the bed, momentarily confused by her surroundings and aching all over. She listened for any sounds beyond the closed door. Hearing nothing she pulled herself up, keeping as quiet as possible.  
The moon still glowed outside her window. For a moment she stared at it, breaking her gaze to look down at her companion cube. The air felt too still without the distant sound of shifting panels, or the various other noises constantly playing behind the scenes at Aperture. Remembering the other use for the cube (other than attacking turrets with) Chell bent down and laid her head on its side. It remained silent, much to her disappointment, not even a hint of the tune she had been certain it had once played. Moving away from it she ventured out into the hallway. It was pitch black save for the thin line of moonlight from her open door.  
In the back of her mind she could almost hear Wheatley as he risked his life to light the way for her. She allowed herself a smirk, quickly checking along the ceiling for the blinking lights of any cameras. Seeing none she cautiously stepped through the darkness, one hand lightly brushing along the wall. This heavy silence unnerved her much more than the faint whispering she'd sometimes heard in those hidden dens. She stopped, the tips of her fingers digging into the paper on the walls. Taking a deep breath she almost laughed at herself, there was nothing to be afraid of here. In the darkness of the enrichment center she had been absolutely fine, so why be worried now? There had been nothing trying to kill her so far here in this particular building, not even accidentally. She didn't count Beth hitting her with the metal hunk that was a car, that had happened outside. But still the heavy, worried feeling stayed wrapped up inside of her.  
She walked on a little way, her hand brushing over a door frame. Chell guessed this was the bathroom, if she remembered right it had been the first door past her small room.  
She flinched as a yellow light flooded the hallway, temporarily blinding her.  
"You go first," John said as she opened her eyes again, blinking at the light. He was stood at the far end of the hall, wearing something stripy that almost resembled her jumpsuit, one hand still hovering over a switch.  
Chell blinked at him and looked at the door her hand rested on. She had been right about it being the bathroom. She shook her head, stepping away from it. Even in the artificial light the dread had not left her. John gave her a quizzical look.  
"Can't sleep?" he ventured after a moment, moving forwards and taking the bathroom door in his hand. Chell nodded, moving further back, "well, I'll make you a drink. Go ahead and wait in the kitchen," with that he disappeared behind the door.  
Chell strode down to the other room and stepped inside. It was smaller than the dining room (as Beth had called it) and had a few mechanical objects sat on the sides. She glared at them, still expecting to hear Her voice through the room. When nothing moved, or attempted to kill her, Chell moved over to the small table pressed against a wall. She sat on one of the chairs there and looked at each of the almost robotic objects.  
There was a large rectangular one between two cupboards. Numbers flashed on a small screen above a handful of dials and two doors. On the side next to it stood a smaller rectangle that she recognized. There had been one of those in the cryogenic sleep chamber, and the large, humming white box. At least she knew what they did, and were pretty harmless. On the table in front of her was something new though. A hand sized rectangle in black. Half of its front was taken up by a screen, which was now flashing 'Beth' and a little green symbol. Beneath that were numbered buttons, each with sets of letters in alphabetical order. the word 'Nokia' emblazoned in silver above the still flashing screen.  
Chell reached out to it, pushing it away about an inch with her finger. It kept flashing but did nothing else. She looked up to the door for John, who was apparently still busy in the bathroom, before turning her attention back to this device. She poked at one of the buttons on the front. Her eyes widened in mild horror as the symbol and name disappeared, replaced with a timer. For a split second Chell was reminded of the timer that went off when neurotoxin was released, but this one was counting upwards. It made a crashing sound and Chell leant a little closer, wondering if this was another form of a core, in the background she could almost hear a familiar tune.  
"Well hello there pretty lady," Chell stared down at the thing, another Rick. Surely one was enough, "why are you laying down there?" she frowned carefully picking up the tiny 'Rick' and holding it closer to her ear, "were you in a fight? That means I've missed out on all the fun."  
"Fact: the adventure core is a blowhard and a coward," Chell held the device away from herself for a second, certain by now this was not one of the cores, but something that could send their voices from Aperture.  
"Shuddup," Rick growled, there was a moan, louder than the cores. Almost as if who ever was making that sound were right besides her. Chell frowned a tiny amount, listening intently and wondering if the cores and moaner could see her.  
"It… hurts…" Chell's eyes widened at Beth's broken, rasping voice. She scolded herself, the device had even told her it would be that woman on the other end. But that would mean… the feeling of dread in her chest intensified and she opened her mouth to say something. A rustling sound and then loud beeping stopped her. She could no longer hear either of the cores, the tune or Beth. She pulled the small, black device away from her head again. The screen had changed, showing a picture of an animal instead of timers or names.  
Beth, somehow, was inside Aperture somewhere. Injured with two defective cores and god knew what else. If GLaDOS was tricking her, She was doing another good job of it. Chell jumped up, leaving the device on the table and dashed back into the hallway. Her mind began racing, had GLaDOS somehow discovered this town and taken Beth or had the tall woman simply stumbled on something she shouldn't have. She nearly crashed into John in her haste as he came out of the bathroom.  
"What's the matter?" he frowned at her as she ducked past him on nimble feet and back into her room.  
She had grabbed her long-fall boots from their place by her bed and was already strapping them on when John appeared at her door. He remained silent, a deep frown set into his tired face. Chell chose to ignore him, his movements were slow and careful and she knew she could easily lose him if the need arose. She didn't need anyone else discovering that place, it was bad enough Beth had ended up there. When she had strapped her boots to her legs, feeling strangely relieved at the familiar weight and height they added, she jumped up. She gave a look to her charred companion cube, but knew better than to try to take it with her. Its weight would only slow her down. She took one glance towards the window and the bright orb of the moon beyond before turning her determined, strong gaze on John. He stepped aside as she strode up to him and, taking that opportunity, she half-ran and half-bounced down the hall. Grabbing the front door and pulling at the handle, expecting it to be locked.  
"Where are you…" John started, a hint of worry in his voice as the handle turned in her palm. She stepped out into the cool night air.  
The door slammed closed behind her and she quickly glanced around. Behind her lay more buildings similar to John's surgery, in front the flat dark lines of a huge, wide area. She began jogging towards the black, flat land. Knowing that was more likely to be that expanse of wheat. Not knowing which direction Beth had gone either she supposed that was the best (although probably not the safest) idea. She shook her head at herself, after spending so many years trying to escape the enrichment center she was now heading back to rescue someone she barely knew. The notion was almost ridiculous enough to make her laugh.  
She glanced over her shoulder as she heard a door open behind her. She could see John stood, one hand still on the handle and the other shielding his eyes, on the step. She turned back around, moving faster, the moon highlighting her path. Chell could hear footsteps on the hard ground and without turning back around she knew it was John, likely worried about the injuries to her arm. She broke into a flat run as she neared the still grasses, running into them as Johns footsteps became more distant.  
She kept up her pace, thankful for the moons pale glow, the grass tickling her bare arms. She barely noticed the chill in the air, Aperture had always had its temperature low so by now she was pretty used to it. When she felt she had moved far enough away that John wouldn't be able to see her, if he hadn't followed her this far, she risked a look behind her. She could see the dark shapes of the town's buildings' highlighted by moon glow, but no John or anything moving for that matter. She allowed herself the relief that came, albeit briefly. Turning her focus back to the grass she searched for an entrance into the underground facility, for anything that resembled the metal shack.  
Chell stopped herself, a small frown forming. Unless she wanted to go back to constant testing she couldn't be too obvious. She would have to find a way in that GLaDOS either didn't know about, a low possibility, if she was honest. Or simply wasn't watching, which she knew to be another impossibly low chance. She thought of just trying the elevator, if she could find it, and strolling into Her chamber. Chell's shoulders rocked as she tried to hold in her laughter at the mere idea. Taking a deep breath and wiping her eyes on the back of her arm she jogged onward. Searching left and right for anything that might lead her in, some way or another.  
Her long-fall boot hit something hard and she stumbled, catching herself before she fell to the ground. Annoyed at the thing that had tripped her she went to give it a kick but stopped halfway through drawing her foot back. A long, metal leg twitched from beneath a raised, grass-topped panel. The chattering coming from under the grass told her it was a single frankenturret. Chell crouched down, peering into the hole beneath the panel, patting the joint of the only exposed leg as two small red optics looked back at her. She turned away for a moment, noticing the slight differences of height in the wheat ahead of her. More panels were raised along there. She guessed this was not the way she had left. She listened carefully for any signs GLaDOS or any other A.I had noticed her presence, but the only sounds she could hear was the chattering of the one franken-cube by her feet.  
With another pat to the strange mix of cube and turrets she lay on the ground, pulling herself through the gap. Below her lay more panels laying at various angles yet still making the rough shape of a room. Only their arms in her view rather than the flat sides she was much ore used to seeing. Their lights were off which either meant this part of the facility was completely broken or GLaDOS had shut it down for some reason. The drop to the top of this chamber wasn't too far away, not that she was overly worried about that with her boots, and it was attached to other rooms and hallways. The only thing that bothered her was how the Franken-turret had ended up wedged in this panel.  
She turned around, pushing her feet through first and holding onto the edge, dangling over the inactive panels. Setting her jaw she let go, wind whistling past her ears as she fell, landing on the back of a panel in a crouch. Taking its arm in one hand she leant forwards, looking into the chamber the panels made. It looked pretty broken, even the door leading to the hall kept trying to close between sparks. that reminded her of those first test chambers after her long sleep. Without a second thought she jumped down, missing an aerial faith plate by an inch. Looking down at it it wasn't hard to figure out how the frankencube had become stuck in the panel far above. Chell could imagine it as it wandered this broken chamber and over the faith plate, only to be shot through the ceiling until it had become stuck up there. She felt a pang of pity for it, but knew from experience it would short itself out before long.  
Without stopping for too long Chell darted through the sparking doorway, into a hallway where the potato tree was breaking through the floor. A mixture of thoughts and emotions hit her. Firstly being back in this crazy, dangerous place, looking for a woman she barely knew. The stale air that filled every room and hallway that she knew to be recycled air. All those memories, a whole lifetimes worth, of the things here. And that plant whose branches had spread so far throughout the enrichment center. The plant she had caused to grow so large, without even realizing it. Well, she had only been ten at the time. And finally the uneasy realization that this place felt more natural to her than even having people around her.  
She took a deep breath, moving past the thick branches and crunching fallen leaves under her feet, continuing on her search for Beth. Chell listened carefully for signs of the cores, perhaps if she could hear the adventure sphere or the rather useless fact core she could find the other Wheatley. Although she was acutely aware of how big this place was, she could only rely on her hope and determination.

A/N: With thanks to Blueotterkitty, I've now edited a few of the chapters. I hope they make more sense now :)


	7. Acrophobia and claustrophobia

Walking had not come naturally to Wheatley and it had taken a few hours, after finally managing to dress himself, to take his first steps. He had started by leaning on the glass of the bin he was in until he felt confident enough to let go and try walking unaided. His first attempt had ended in failure and he now sported bruises from tripping over his own, large, feet.  
GLaDOS had sent the glass bin down to a test chamber as soon as he got the hang of walking around his prison, taking away one of its walls with a claw when it arrived. She dropped a pair of long-fall boots next to him before withdrawing the claws and replacing the panels in the ceiling. He watched the panels shifting, blue lights on their arms disappearing as they re-made the roof. He strapped the long-fall boots on, his hands becoming easier to control the more he used them.  
"Hey, hey, are we going back to space? I love space!" the space core chattered away from his spot in the corner. Wheatley shook his head down at him, the sensation momentarily leaving him dizzy.  
"No. Don't really want to go back there myself, although, it, ah, may still be better than this," he motioned to himself with one hand, the other holding his head in his wide palm, "feels strange to be this high all the time. I don't like it much, not at all really. Its like being back on my management rail but, erm, without the safety of being attached I suppose…"  
"The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device is in this chamber. You will need it for further testing," Her voice rang out, cutting his train of thought as a small camera lifted and focused its lens on him from above a circular door. Wheatley gave a nervous smile, picking up the space core and holding him by his handle.  
"Right… you're heavy mate," he groaned. He shifted the weight of the core in his hand. "So, ah I'll just get on with testing then," he added in a low mutter, scanning the room until he saw the portal gun sat on a pillar in the middle of it. He went to take a step forwards, stumbling over his feet and bouncing on the heel of one long-fall boot as he steadied himself. He gave a nervous chuckle and tried again, staring down at his feet and moving slowly across the paneled floor. Finally he faced the podium where the gun waited and picked it up. He gave it a nervous look over before slipping his hand through its grip. Juggling with the space core with each movement he made.  
"Wait… wait, I know, wait, wait wait… I know, I know, wait," the defective core muttered away as Wheatley moved cautiously towards the door. Her camera still watched and moved with him, "SPAAAAACE!"  
"ARRRRRGH!" Wheatley cried, nearly dropping his companion at the sudden shout. He took a few unsteady breaths, glaring down at the yellow optic under his arm, "what did you do that for? Scared the living day lights out of me!"  
He shook his head at the core and headed to the exit. It opened for him and he hastily ducked through the emancipation grid. The operating end of the ASHPD twitched, but nothing else seemed to happen. He chuckled nervously and took a few more, cautious, steps to the stairs.  
At the bottom he could see a glass elevator. The last time he had seen one of those… his shoulders sagged, that heavy weight settling in his chest again.  
"Hey, hey, hey… Space," the core whispered into his arm, breaking him from his silent reverie.  
Wheatley bounced down the stairs, a little too fast for his liking, as the elevator door opened. GLaDOS stayed silent for now, but he guessed it wouldn't be too long until She started with Her almost constant insults.  
"You know," he started in an almost whisper, looking down at his companion, "I still want to escape. Still want to apologize for being monstrous to her. For, for trying to kill her," he closed his eyes, the doors closing and he felt the elevator moving downwards, "I, ah, nearly killed her didn't I? The only one who listened to me… sure, she had brain damage but…" he stopped, leaning back onto the glass wall of the elevator with a heavy sigh.  
"Black hole," the space core said, his tone suddenly serious. Wheatley grinned half heartedly, opening his eyes to look down at him.  
"Exactly mate. A big one, right about here," he moved the portal gun over his chest, motioning as best as he could, "feels just like that. Swear you know more than you let on."

XXX

Beths' side ached along with her head as she opened her eyes. The last things she could remember were searching along the road where she had accidentally ran into the mystery woman, then wandering into the wheat fields a little. After that had been the ground giving away beneath her and next the sensation of falling. Pain had coursed throughout her throughout her body and she had been certain she had heard two male voices before she had blacked out.  
She stared up at the ceiling, but all she could see beyond the haphazard squares above was darkness. Beth could hear music, the words didn't make much sense but the tune felt sad and depressing. She looked down, spotting her cell phone on the ground by her side. She instinctively reached over and grabbed it, trying to turn it back on to call someone.  
"Bloody battery," she muttered, again looking for the source of the music. Down the hallway she was laying in, which she found pretty disorientating, were more branches that clumped together near a circular door. To the other side the branches thinned and she could see a half circle radio laying on its side. With a groan she tried to sit up, wincing as she moved her arms to support her weight and leaning a little on what looked like a branch of some sort of tree.  
"Fact: you have an eighty point nine chance of dying within the next four minutes," her heart thudded at what the voice said and she turned her head sharply to find the speaker.  
"Four eyes, I would give you a wedgie if we had arms or legs, or wore pants. Hey beautiful, finally woke up," there was a deep laugh, the voices coming from somewhere above and to the right of her. Beth looked up, straight into two glowing lights on the front of two metal balls hanging from a bar on the ceiling.  
"AHHH!" she cried, leaping back as the green lit ball suddenly moved forward, "what the hell?"  
"Fact: human females do not speak," the pink light stared down at her, not moving from its place on the rail.  
"Shuddup," the ball with the green light growled, its beam flicking as if it were trying to look over its non-existent shoulder to the other one, "just because the last lady didn't. But she gave us something to remember. Explosion day! Can't wait until next explosion day."  
Beth tightened her hand around the branch, staring wide-eyed at the two. Were these alive? Some sort of robot? Her mouth flapped open and closed a few times before she could find the courage to speak again.  
"W-what are.. Or.. Who are you? I-I mean, do you… have names..? Are you friendly ..?" The green light fixed on her again.  
"The names Rick. The Adventure core," he said proudly, "now don't you worry your pretty head, little lady. You're in safe hands with me around," Beth blinked a few times, taking in their shapes once again. There was the distinct lack of hands.  
"Fact: with the adventure core you have a two point five chance of survival."  
"And this here is the fact core, ignore him. Just stick with me little lady," Beth pulled herself up, still using the overgrown plant as support, staring up at 'Rick' and 'Fact'.  
"What are you..?" She asked quietly, her legs shaking beneath her as she tried to calm her thumping heart.  
"Wait… you're not from Black Mesa are you? We're under strict orders not to talk to anyone that works for them, no matter how beautiful they may be," Beth felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment as the compliments flew down at her. People usually just called her plain or ginger, then again neither of them were people.  
"Black Mesa? No, no I don't work for them…" she started uncertainly.  
"Well lady, you're not a scientist are you? Can't remember them ever wearing clothes like that. Not that I mind. We can have an adventure," his green 'eye' stared down at her, behind him on the rail the pink eyed robot piped up.  
"Fact: we are about to be killed," Beths' heart thumped with fear again as a loud bang echoed from above them. All three of them looked up to a pair of grey determined eyes looking through the gap in the ceiling.  
"Sweetie!" Beth cried out, relieved at seeing a human face, "I think I'm stuck down here. Fell quite a way, but I'm alright… Oh, what are you doing here?" The dark haired woman swung her legs down into the hole. Her strange, white boots catching the glow of the lights. She jumped down, landing in front of Beth. Her grey eyes stared at her, but Beth could not read any emotions in them.  
"Oh hello beautiful, who are we fighting this time? You fighting this girl..?" Rick laughed, something resembling an eyelid moving and half covering his 'eye'. Beth frowned as the mystery woman glared up at the little robot.  
"Fact: Marie curie invented the theory of radioactivity, the treatment of radioactivity and dying of radioactivity," the other 'core' said, he was met by a roll of the eyes from the other woman.  
"So, erm, how do we get out of here? Can we climb back up there?" Beth asked as she looked up, squinting into the darkness and trying her best to ignore the two robots as they began to argue on the rail. "Actually, not sure how far up it goes. Is there anything to even climb on up there?" She turned back to the dark haired girl who shook her head, reached out and took Beths' arm in her hand. She motioned down the hallway, past more branches of the tree, "ah right, we have to look for another way to escape right?" She was almost certain she caught her flinch as she dragged her down the hallway, "quick question," Beth ventured after a moment. The two cores further back hadn't noticed them leaving, yet, and were still in the midst of arguing, "what's your name? Can't remember if I asked before or…"  
"Chell," she replied, keeping her voice low and not turning around.  
"Ah, right. Lovely name, is it short for something? Never mind. Anyway, what is this place?" The woman, Chell, let go of her arm and gave only a quick shake of her head by way of reply, "ah, alright…" Beth said quietly, following her as she crouched and climbed through a gap on the wall by the floor.  
Chell disappeared from her sight and, a split second later, there was the sound of something hitting metal. Beth awkwardly crouched and crawled through the hole, slightly worried when she spotted the dirty hand print on the wall. It was too large to have been left by a woman. Swallowing against the sudden dry sensation in her throat she leant forwards, seeing the dark haired girl waiting for her on a metal catwalk. It wasn't that far down so she quickly swung her legs around and dropped, gulping as the metal swayed beneath her feet.  
"This place is pretty creepy…" she glanced back to the hole they had climbed through, "its all falling apart. And what's with those… core things? Where are we?" she found it hard to stop her voice from shaking. Chell stepped closer to her, gently patting her arm and smiling so softly Beth wasn't even sure if she had seen it.  
They walked together down the catwalks, up and down the metal staircases that were scattered here and there. The whole place almost sounded alive with the distant creaks and quiet bangs. Beth shuddered, sticking close to Chell and wishing she could be as calm as her new acquaintance. After what felt like an eternity they came across another crawl space, set just above the rail of the catwalk. Chell climbed up first, pulling herself into the narrow space. A second later her hand appeared at the entrance, motioning for Beth to follow.  
It was a bit more of a struggle for the taller woman, but finally she managed to squeeze herself into the opening. She could see the other woman's boots at the end, upright and waiting. With a grunt Beth pulled herself along, flailing as she slipped out and stood up, laughing nervously.  
"I'm not a big fan of small spaces," she said as Chells' eyes widened the tiniest amount, "rather be out of them. Erm, claustrophobic I think its called…" she paused, giving the room they were stood in a look over. The lighting in here was yellowish, making the whole place seem more eerie than the much darker catwalks. On the floor various mugs, computer terminals and bean cans laid. But what drew her attention was the beautiful mural painted on one wall. The picture itself was of a woman in an orange jumpsuit, apparently asleep. Strange tiny, white things with three legs and one red light at their center stood in a line beneath the sleeping woman. Words and equations had been scratched all over the place, none of them making much sense to her. In the corner there was a box with a heart on, much like the burnt one she had seen Chell with. A small halo painted above it. Beth took it all in, her eyes drawn back to the focal point of the picture.  
"Is that… is that you?" she asked, pointing one finger at the image of the sleeping woman and turning to look at her companion. Chell shrugged her shoulders and motioned for her to follow, moving past the mural and vanishing around a corner. Beth shuddered in the cool air, sure she could hear a high pitched, chattering voice from somewhere behind the wall, "sweetie! Wait for me!" she cried in mild panic, stumbled over herself as she dashed to catch up with Chell.


	8. Murals, confusion and misery

Chell followed the symbols she recognized scratched into obscure places on the walls; an arrow, 'this way' and the dirty hand-prints that she had followed so many times before. She still wasn't sure if the person who had left them was still here but, much like the first time she had found a hidden den, she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling of being watched. Or maybe that was just the effects of having cameras watching her every step throughout her life.  
She could hear Beth behind her, muttering still about the creepy atmosphere these abandoned rooms had. Chell smiled very lightly, glad that the woman didn't appear to have any lasting injuries from her fall down to this place.  
She spotted a simple office door ahead, another dirty hand-print on the wall besides it. Looking over her shoulder she noticed Beth was hugging herself, obviously not used to the constant chill of the enrichment center. Chell waved a hand, catching her attention, before she opened the door. It swung in silently and they found themselves looking into another corridor. This one was slightly better lit and in a better condition, although parts of the ceiling looked like they may fall in at any given time. Chell thought that perhaps a quiet approach would be the best bet here.  
"We're going down there?" Beth asked, leaning over her shoulder and peering through the smeared glasses on her nose. Chell gave a single nod and put a finger against her own lips.  
The last thing she wanted was GLaDOS to notice them or the rickety roof to give in on them. Beth smiled, that hint of uncertainty still in those bright blue eyes, her hands taking her long braid as she began to fiddle with it. Chell took a few, cautious steps inside the hallway with Beth staying close behind her.  
After checking the walls of the corridor for any signs of active cameras, and finding none, she moved down its length. Beth remained quiet and Chell wondered briefly if that was a hard thing for her to do. With each step she kept a careful eye on the ceiling, a small amount of dust falling from up there. At least nothing seemed to be moving in the darkness above.  
They walked like this for a few more minutes, each door they passed Chell tested, but all were locked so far. That was until they neared the end of the hall. A large part of the wall had fallen away, taking a door with it. She tapped a piece of the rubble with her toe before looking into the room beyond. It looked like an office, piles of rubble and computer terminals filled it. Chell stepped over the crumbled pieces of mortar and looked around the room, although she wasn't entirely sure what she was looking for. She heard a small stone hit the wall behind her and looked over her shoulder at Beth, who smiled a little sheepishly.  
"Hello investors, Cave Johnson here," Chell spun around, seeing a computer terminal that wasn't displaying the usual feed of yellow, jumbled writing. Instead it showed a static filled video, the content lost apart from the voice of the CEO. She stared as it continued, Beth standing besides her with a confused frown on her face, "now I know you've sunk a lot of money into the dual portal device, but I'm here to tell you, we're not banging rocks together over here. We know how to make a quantum space hole. Caroline?"  
"What…" Beth started and Chell raised a hand to quieten her, focusing on the voice of the CEO of Aperture.  
"See?" the deep voice of the long dead Cave continued, "a portal here, a portal there. Heh heh. Look at this thing go," still the computer terminal showed no clear image, yet Chell found hearing his voice reassuring, as she had down in the bowels of this place. There was a whooshing sound Chell easily recognized as falling from a height and a thud, she winced for whoever had hit the floor, "now we have run into a reproducible human error problem. Lots of expensive equipment getting broken. But don't worry, Cave took care of it. Gentlemen, I give you the long- fall boo…" his voice cut out to static and Chell frowned. All of that sounded familiar. She shook the feeling off.  
"What was all that about? Didn't make much sense…" Beth tapped a few keys on the keyboard and Chell gave her a quick shake of the head, "oh right, best not to mess around with this stuff," she chuckled, stepping away and going back to playing with her braid.  
Looking around the room Chell saw a pile of rubble that was obscuring a metal cupboard in the corner. She strode over to it, pulling some of the rocks away from the dented door. It was worth looking into, in case there was anything useful inside. Without the ASHPD some things would be difficult here, at this point she would even settle for some rope. Beth came to her side, reaching out and hauling some of the rocks away.  
Together they moved enough of the rubble so that the door was free. Chell pushed her fingers into the dent that had buckled the door and gave a pull. It swung open with a screech of metal. She grimaced, catching Beth out of the corner of her eye, her hands clasped over her ears and a look of horror on her face. Chell reached in, pulling out the long-fall boots that had been stored within. There were three pairs, one looked slightly damaged, she checked the others over. They looked alright as far as she could tell, still for Beth it was better than the thin looking black trainers she wore now. In this place is was always worth thinking of the worst case scenario. Staring at the boots Chell wondered if this room had been used for trying to sell new products. If that were true these lang-fall boots could easily just be prototypes. Still she knew they were better than nothing.  
"Oh look, they're like what you're wearing," Beth said quietly, reaching out a hand and touching the hard outer shell of one boot. Chell nodded, holding out the two pairs that appeared in working order, "you want me to put them on?" Beth questioned, uncertainty breaking into her voice. Again she nodded, moving her hands over her own long-fall boots to demonstrate how to strap them on.  
Beth sat on a large piece of rubble, removing her shoes and pulling the boots over her calves, discarding the slightly smaller pair. After a minute she stood and bounced a little on the curved material attached to the back.  
"Haha, these feel strange. And they make me taller too, not that I need much more height. Apart from Angie I'm the tallest girl in town," she bounced again, quickly getting the hang of them, "what are these for, exactly?" Chell thought it best not to answer. Instead she silently moved back to the corridor. Beth again following behind, giggling occasionally and talking about the sensation the boots gave her.  
Heading to the last few doors Chell tried their handles, two out of the five were unlocked. The first just led into another office, the computers inside blank and the table bare. The other door led out to a broken test chamber. She stepped out with the taller woman by her side, there was a franken-turret sat on the super collider button that opened the door… but the exit remained closed next to its yellow tick. Chell frowned but walked through the simple chamber. She began to run her hands over the panels that lined the walls, squinting and leaning this way and that to see if there was any other way out. As she made a slow turn, scanning the chamber, she saw the very confused look on Beth's face.  
"What are you doing..?" she stepped over to the franken-turret as it chattered away on its back, "and what is this thing? Its.. Ah, sort of cute don't you think? Yeah," Chell watched as the other woman patted one of its heads, "really strange th…" she stopped mid-word, her eyes going wide as she stared at its side, "it says 'Wheatley'…" Chell stood rock still for a moment as Beth's eyes looked up to her questioningly, finally she gave a nod and turned away again. She gritted her teeth, wishing Beth hadn't seen that rather blatant hint at what Wheatley had done.  
It was then that she spotted it, one panel slightly away from the wall. Another entrance to a den. Chell bounced over to it, motioning for Beth to follow.  
"But, what about this little guy..?" her voice sounded pitiful, "and… Why does it say 'Wheatley'..?" Chell sighed and motioned again to her, leaving her questions unanswered.  
At last she moved, rather reluctantly leaving the twisted robot on the button. When she had reached her Chell ducked through the opening behind the panel and under its arm. A part of the wall was missing in here and she felt a little disappointed to see half of a mural had gone with it. The remainder showed a slice of cake painted near the ground, next to another depiction of the angel companion cube.  
Beth stood and stared at the wall, silent and apparently deep in thought. Her lips were pursed and her eyebrows knotted above her nose. Chell reached out a hand and carefully patted her arm, hoping it gave her some reassurance. When the strawberry-blonde woman gave a weak smile in return, but not her voice, Chell felt a little disappointed.  
She briskly walked through the den, noticing that above her there was no ceiling, just a few catwalks and a vast emptiness that filled her with dread. Taking a few more steps she found yet another door and, not expecting it to be open, she gave the handle a quick tug. When the door swung outwards she almost yelled in surprise, instead biting on her lip and nearly laughing at herself for not expecting the unexpected.  
Just beyond lay the remains of a corridor. At least its floor and a wall were still in one piece. It seemed to be another extension of the den the women had just left. Murals had been painted on the lone wall that still stood. The paintings were much the same as those she had seen before, one being the image of herself clad in orange looking up at GLaDOS as She held out a piece of cake in a claw. That stick man with the orange head stood beneath a portal gun and scratched words and symbols were scattered over most of the panels. And more images of the companion cube, all complete with halos and wings.  
In front of the wall sat one of those very cubes, its top covered in a thin layer of dust. What caught her attention next was the heavily battered, metal ball laying, half hidden, behind the grey and pink box.  
"Is that another core thing..?" Beth asked quietly from behind her and Chell gave a nod, leaving the door and striding over to it. She saw its hull was slightly blackened, its shutters tightly closed. Its top handle was bent and the bottom one was missing completely, she winced as she imagined how much pain it must be in. Carefully she picked it up, feeling that familiar weight in her hands.  
Chell turned it over, using one hand to force open its top shutter. The empty optic was cracked. The strength in her legs almost giving out as the realization sunk in, she let go of the shutter quickly but it stayed up, giving him a morbid smile. Grimacing a little she forced it back down. She leant against the mural covered wall and wrapped the core in her arms, tucking her body around him. She turned his closed shutters to her face, biting down hard on the inside of her lip to stop that pain in her chest.  
"Are you alright sweetie..? Is it, ah, alive… or on…?" Beth asked, sitting down with her back against the side of the companion cube, her long legs spread out in front of her. Chell felt a lump form in her throat and she shook her head, pulling her knees up to her chest and staring down at him, willing him to open his optic. To flash back into life. But even that twitch and spark had gone. He was nothing more than an empty shell. He had made it back from space somehow, only to die. That is if he hadn't just shorted out in orbit before being pulled back. Guilt at throwing him into space built up inside of her, but she still forced herself not to cry. This was her fault and the least she could do was apologize. She brought her face close to his hull.  
"I'm sorry…" she whispered, the lump in her throat making her throat ache even more. In the back of her mind she wondered why she felt like this, he had tried to murder her several times. But even with that history between them the pain in her chest would not stop.  
Beth stayed quiet, and Chell wasn't sure if she had heard the quiet apology or not. If she had she knew enough to tell it wasn't directed at her.  
Chell had thought that maybe, if she had ever met him again, she would have slapped him for trying to murder her, then apologize for letting go when he had begged her not to. But for now her anger and the feeling of betrayal were gone. She just sat there staring down at his metal casing, fighting with her emotions.


	9. Hidden helper

Wheatleys' eyes scanned the newest chamber She had sent him to as he tried to figure out what he had to do. He had placed the space core in the corner, promising to come back for him.  
"When you have completed this very simple test. I have a surprise for you," Her voice echoed around the room.  
"Like I'd believe that," he scowled, trying to focus on the task at hand.  
There were two discouragement beams, one coming out of the wall and the other from the ceiling in front of him but he couldn't see any redirection cube. Somewhere ahead he could hear the sweet voice of a turret, asking him to go over to it.  
"Sorry mate!" he called over to the dangerous A.I, "sort of busy over here right now. Right, I think I see what I have to do here. I just…" he shot an orange portal at a panel high on the wall and a blue one into the floor beneath where the laser would have to go. He smiled as the discouragement beam hit its mark, making the sensor spin with a musical tone. By the exit, set high up in the test chamber, a yellow tick appeared. The moving panels that would lift him up there still had a blue cross by their side.  
He moved forward through the test, trying to ignore the growling coming from his stomach. He wasn't quite sure what that noise meant and it unnerved him somewhat.  
"Concentrate," he told himself in a low murmur, "just get through this test."  
He leant against the paneled wall, peering around the corner as carefully as he could. Down the hall he saw the redirection cube but still no turret. Smirking to himself he strode, as confidently as he could manage in his new body, the short distance to the cube. He saw the red sight a little too late, jumping past as the turret prepared to fire. He landed on his stomach, nose pressed against the cube he needed to complete this room.  
"Are you still there? Hello?" The turret asked.  
Wheatley pulled himself up and looked back to where he saw its red optic. It was sat behind a grate on the floor. He grabbed the cube with the portal gun and steadied himself.  
"Now or never..!" He cried, leaping forwards past the little turret. He dashed back around to the remaining discouragement beam coming from the ceiling. He dropped the cube beneath it, the red light bending away from him.  
"I'm on fire! It burns!" Cried the turret.  
Wheatley winced for it, moving the cube a little so that the laser was no longer pointed at the A.I. But it exploded, sending the grate flying part of the way across the chamber.  
"Ah, didn't mean to do that," he frowned, making his way over to where it had stood.  
He crouched by the small space where its pieces still burned and peered inside. In bright red letters were the words 'this way' and an arrow pointing to the left. He glanced over his shoulder at the camera She watched him through, then turned back to the space. He crawled into it a little way, aware his feet poked out of the hole behind him, and touched the letters. They smeared under his fingers, leaving red marks on him. He frowned and looked left, to where the arrow directed him. It was a long crawl space with words scrawled here and there and, at its end, he could just make out the rails of a catwalk in the gloom.  
Wheatley began to pull himself through the gap on his hands and knees. There was enough room for a smaller person to crouch perhaps but, being so tall, crawling was easier. He felt curious about what else was written along the walls and stopped to read each message. In some places the paint still dripped to the floor and that gave him the uneasy feeling that someone that wasn't GLaDOS had been watching him. Some of the messages made no sense to him, but mostly they seemed to direct him to the catwalk.  
"Suckers luck. Like seeing only with no eyes… Escape, the cake is a lie. Already knew that mate, wouldn't want to eat it anyway. Do you know what She puts in it? Erm, another big arrow," he muttered as he crawled along, reading each word aloud as he passed them.  
It didn't take him long to reach the catwalk but, because he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, he only noticed when he fell onto it with a loud clang.  
"Ow," he muttered, pulling himself up and trying to brush grime from himself.  
Wheatley looked back up to the small space he had just climbed through and saw the arm of the back of a panel there instead of a hole. The way back now completely gone.  
"Erm, left.. Er.. What's his name back there. Guess he'll be alright though," he frowned, tightening his grip on the portal gun as he thought of the space core sat alone in that chamber, "yeah. I'm sure he'll be fine. But, what do I do now?"  
He looked for another symbol or sign written on anything nearby. He shook his head a little when he realized he was stood between test chambers, facing nothing but the long catwalk and the arms of panels on each side.  
"Well, guess there's only one way to go," he sighed a little, bouncing on the heels of his long-fall boots as he began walking down the metal pathway.  
"Hello? Where are you? I know you're here, I can feel you there," Her voice echoed somewhere in the distance and Wheatley felt panic rush through his body. He began to run.  
"Not here luv! Please don't kill me, please don't…"  
"Moron, I can hear you," Her voice cut him off, sounding much closer than before.  
"Still not a moron! And you are not going to trick me lady! I'm going to get out of this damned place, but I'm not going back to space. Oh no, tricks are not going to work for little Wheatley!"  
The metal of the catwalk rang out with each long stride he took. He was surprised at how little concentration he needed for running. As long as he didn't think too much about it. He stumbled as his mind started to focus on running, managing to catch himself before he fell face first onto the metal below him.  
"I am going to kill you," She said with anger rising in Her voice. The chambers on either side of him began to move. That gave him the nasty feeling of dejavu.  
"I'm not listening luv!" he cried out, forcing his legs to stop shaking and start moving again.  
The arms of those panels were uncomfortably close and, in blind panic, he bolted the last few feet of the catwalk. At the end a red arrow pointed upwards from a panel covered in drying conversion gel. He followed its point, tilting his head and spotting more of the white conversion gel painted on a wall high above. He couldn't see where he would end up but, with the chambers destroying the catwalk behind him, he didn't have the time to think about it. He pointed the ASHPD up and shot an orange portal at that patch of white. Then a blue one at the arrow in front of him, relief flooded him as the portals placed themselves with no problems. Without a glance back he jumped through the blue gateway. The walkway behind him being crushed as the two test chambers slammed into each other loudly.  
He landed on his feet, much to his surprise, just under the orange portal. Far ahead of him, above the shifting chambers and abyss below, he could see another white patch. It seemed to hover above nothing but, with the catwalks destroyed and no where else to go he didn't have much choice. Wheatley shot a blue gateway at it and leapt through the orange portal behind him. He landed with a crash on yet another walkway, the blue portal a few feet above him. The catwalk led to walls on each side of him but under the blue entrance stood a simple, grey office door. He tugged at the handle hopefully and gulped back relief as it opened.  
"No where else to go," he muttered, cautiously entering.  
He found himself in a hallway. The walls and floor covered in a thin layer of dust. Some had been disturbed on the floor into another arrow.  
"Ran out of red paint mate?" He muttered to no one, as he carefully closed the door behind him.  
Wheatley moved carefully down the corridor, peering through the glass windows he passed by. Inside each small office projectors still shone their images against white boards, the tables and chairs long abandoned.  
Now he was away from testing he had a moment to think over everything that had happened to him. For a start him being in this tall human body just so that GLaDOS could continue human testing. At first coming back from space had been enough of a shock to him, but being a smelly human easily topped that. He'd been quite proud of himself at completing the first few chambers, even while still learning how to move around without tripping. Secondly he couldn't believe he was actually escaping. He would have laughed at the prospect, but even the word alone brought a strange, heavy pain into his heart. Even now he wished he had kept his promise to Chell and had just helped her instead of betraying her and trying to murder her. He shook his head, feeling disgusted at himself for being that cruel to his only friend. His stomach growled again and he winced as a growling pain rose up in it.  
"That can't be a good sound," he muttered, " doesn't sound very nice and hurts a bit," he rubbed at his stomach and looked down at his orange jumpsuit a little worried.  
His mouth began to feel dry and, in the stale air, he began to cough. Each rasp sent his new heart thudding in fear and water began to sting at his eyes. He tried talking to himself to calm his nerves but each time he even tried to pass a single syllable his throat ached and he just coughed even more. He staggered down the hall, his free hand clamped over his mouth as he wheezed and gasped. Wheatley knew he was going to die here, his weak human body was giving up on him. He pushed his back against the wall and slid down its length, drawing his knees up to his chest as he continued spluttering into his hand. Beneath the racket he was making he was almost certain he heard a door opening nearby.  
Wheatley leapt up, even more panicked now. He really felt like a moron for letting his guard down, even for a few seconds. Turning on his heels he bolted down the hallway, away from where he had heard the door. The shock at almost being caught seemed to give new life to his body. The uncomfortable growling in his stomach stopped as did that horrible sensation in his throat. He bolted as fast as he could and saw an open door to his right. He leapt through it, closing the door quietly behind him as his heart seemed to try escaping past his ribs. He leant against the door and tried to steady his breathing. The room was simple. Four walls with a long table at its center, apart from that and Wheatley it was empty. He had cornered himself. Maybe he really was a moron.  
Outside, in the corridor, he heard the tell-tale tapping of two sets of feet. His mind raced as he imagined the co-operative testing robots again searching for him. They had probably been sent by Her and he would be dragged back to Her chamber, most likely to be killed. Wheatley squeezed his eyes shut, hoping the incredibly loud sound of his heart would not give him away.


	10. Is anyone there?

She had only allowed herself to stop in the mural covered hallway for a few minutes and had been thankful for Beths' silence at the time. She had soon decided to move on from that place. They had left the companion cube but Chell had taken Wheatleys' body.  
They had walked more than they had rested and, at one point, Chell had been almost certain she had heard GLaDOS somewhere in the distance. She had shaken the feeling off quickly, only to hear the distant sound of crashing. The noise seemed to echo from somewhere ahead and below them. At first she thought she had imagined that too, until Beth had asked what it was in a panicked tone. Chell remained silent, simply motioning for the taller woman to move a little faster. The sound had stopped and nothing else accompanied it.  
"So, erm, how long are we going to be walking for? It's just that I'm getting a bit hungry… and cold. Its really very cold down here. Aren't you sweetie? And I've noticed we seem to be going down, rather than up. Kind of hard to tell though, but there has definitely been more stairs going down," Beth rambled on keeping up her pace.  
Chell looked over her shoulder at her and gave a shrug. The other woman's face fell a little.  
"Do you know where we're going?"  
Chell didn't answer, instead she turned back around, shifting Wheatleys' body in her arms. Her chest still ached when she looked down at him, but she knew she couldn't just leave him.  
"Ah, want me to carry that… erm, him? Her? It? Looks heavy. Aren't your arms aching?"  
Chell shook her head as a reply. She was used to pain and irritation so carrying the empty but still heavy hull wasn't too much of a problem for her.  
They crossed onto a new catwalk and Chell saw that it hung over various others, some of which had hallways and doors attached. But she wasn't keen on heading any further down than they already had. The only reason she had descended this far was to find her way across to a safer place to the surface. Where they had been had ended in a dead end for the surface, only leading them downwards. It was a detour but she knew they could make it. Another emotion hit Chell and she frowned at herself. She was almost glad to be back here. In aperture she had a purpose and that was to escape. On the surface it would take her some time to find her place. Even though John, Susan and Beth had welcomed her into the surgery. Admittedly only after she'd been knocked down by Beths' car.  
There was a loud creak from behind her and she turned to look at Beth. There was no time to react as the metal Chell had just passed over buckled and fell away. The look on Beths' face as she began to fall was nothing more than pure terror. Chell almost dropped Wheatley as she reached out for her. Their fingertips brushing each others and then she was gone.  
Chell winced as she heard the piece of metal crash below and then something heavier landing with a thud. Gripping Wheatley tightly she leant over the hole in the catwalk, hoping that the prototype long-fall boots Beth wore actually worked.  
"Ahh! I'm… still in one piece! That's good!" Her voice called up and Chell allowed herself a smile, spotting the other woman stood on what looked like the outside of a test chamber, "I landed on my feet too. Really thought I was going to die then!"  
Chell laid Wheatleys body on the ground, being careful not to let him roll away, before leaning back over the hole and motioning for Beth to move over. The taller woman frowned and climbed over a panel arm. Chell gave a nod and picked up Wheatley once more, she jumped down to Beth. Landing between two arms on her feet.  
"So… that's what the boots are for," Beth grinned, looking down at her footwear with appreciation, "that's actually really useful."  
Chell frowned, glancing down at the dead core in her arms before motioning for Beth to follow her.  
They climbed through the array of panel arms until Chell saw another catwalk. This one was much shorter and had only one door. But she could see nowhere else for them to go. Something didn't feel right about it though, so she just stood there as she tried to figure out what seemed wrong. Beth tapped her on the shoulder.  
"What on earth is that?" She whispered quietly, pointing to the orange portal carefully placed above the office door.  
Chell stared at it. That was the problem. She hadn't paid too much attention to it at first, being used to seeing her own carefully placed portals. The single portal was set too high for someone to enter from this end. Either whoever had placed it was about to come through or they had already been here. She turned quickly to check behind her. Set high up and far back a blue portal stood. Chell could see no movement up there however so she guessed whoever had the portal gun just hadn't closed them. She turned sharply back to Beth and held a finger to her own lips. The other woman gave a quick nod to her then looked perplexed at the orange gateway. Chell held out Wheatleys' body to her and Beth took him, holding him as carefully as she could. Although she seemed quietly surprised at his weight.  
Chell then walked to the end of the panel and, not wanting to give their position away, lowered herself carefully down onto the catwalk. As soon as her feet met the metal she looked back up to Beth, motioning for her to drop Wheatley down.  
A moment later Chell once again had her friends body safe in her arms, ignoring the pain screaming from her stitches. Beth clambered down, her hands almost slipping once or twice. The strawberry-blonde woman looked pleased with herself when she made it down in one piece and without making any loud noises. Chell gave her a thumbs up from beneath the cores body and nodded towards the door. Beth gave a small frown and pulled at the handle, looking back at Chell with a smile as it opened.  
Chell felt all the muscles in her body tense as she heard movement at the far end of the corridor beyond. Quickly she stepped around Beth and peered inside. Nothing appeared to be moving, but the dust that covered the floor had been unsettled. Cautiously she moved forwards with Beth close behind her.  
Their long-fall boots tapped across the floor of the hallway, disturbing more of the dust that lay there. They passed a few offices with glass windows and Chell peered inside each one but saw nothing of immediate interest. The doors that lined the end of the hallway were simple and grey like the one they had entered. But further down th dust hadn't been disturbed at all.  
Chell paused outside the door the trail led her to and held Wheatleys' body out to Beth again. If there was something hostile behind this door then she knew she was better equip to deal with it than Beth. After all she had survived being almost murdered more times than she cared to remember. More recently by the core that Beth took in her long arms.  
Chell reached out to the handle and, just before she took it in her palm, there was a sudden flurry of activity.  
Firstly Beth stepped besides her, holding the core in front of her with mild confusion on her face. Next the door swung open, almost knocking Chell off of her feet, and a chair appeared out of nowhere brandished by a very tall man with short, messy hair and a portal gun.  
"AAAHHHHHHH!" he cried as he swung the office furniture towards the two women.  
Chell grabbed Beths' arm just in time, pulling her out of the way of the mad man and wooden chair. Beth dropped Wheatleys' body to the ground as she stumbled backwards. As soon as he hit the floor everything stopped. The tall man simply stood there, the chair still held up in his wide, dirty hands as he stared down at the cores' body. His face had gone a distinct white, making his blue eyes stand out even more. Chell half stood in front of Beth, glaring at the man.  
"Are… are you alright?" Beth piped up, her voice shaking a little, "are you trying to get out of here too?"  
The man turned and looked at her and lowered the chair, placing it on the floor. Chell narrowed her eyes at him, prepared for if he tried another attack. He smiled at them widely. She set her jaw, ready to grab the ASHPD and Wheatleys' core.  
"Luv!" He suddenly cried, his mouth flapping as he tried to find the words, "who is that? Oh.. Oh I see! She didn't let you go. And I thought you two were the best of friends when I put her in that potato… Never mind, never mind. Not what I wanted to say," he broke eye contact, bending and picking up the cores' body from the ground in one hand. He winced at it before dropping him back onto the ground. Chell stared at him. The accent was exactly the same and he looked like Beth to some extent. The same coloured hair and eyes and that tall awkward body. She knew exactly who he was.  
"Erm, I'm Beth and who are you? Kind of glad we're not the only people down here. Oh, did you paint those murals? They're really good!" It was obvious Beth was focusing on what she considered to be normal conversation, ignoring the things that she could not make sense of.  
Chell couldn't move, for once her body seemed to be ignoring her commands. She had a feeling she knew what the man was going to say before he said it. Knowing GLaDOS and Her need for test subjects in the name of science, Chell hazarded a guess that this man was the core she had been carrying around for the last few hours.  
"Oh, er, no. I didn't paint them. Guess that means you didn't either. I'm.. I was a core," he pointed down at what had once been Wheatley with a grimace, "now, thanks to Her, I'm a smelly… never mind! The names Whe…" Chell finally moved forwards, the emotions inside her swelling. Anger won against all the others. She reached up and slapped him hard across the cheek. He reeled backwards, his own hand covering the angry red mark across his face.  
"Chell! Why'd you do that? Poor bloke was scared, you can't hold the chair thing against him," Beth cried, grabbing her arm and pulling her back. Chell gritted her teeth, glaring at the tall man in front of them.  
"No, no… its ok.. Erm, Beth right? I deserved that, definitely. Hurts though," he rubbed his face, "luv… erm, Chell…I'm sorry. Sorry I was monstrous and for everything I did… completely my fault. But I promise, I will never do anything like that again. If I'm honest I thought She had killed you. Thought I'd never get the chance to say sorry," the words spilled out of him but he kept his eyes down, focused on the floor.  
Chell sighed and instinctively looked up and down the corridor for any cameras. There was one, but it had been disconnected and lay on the floor at the end of the hallway.  
"What did you do?" Beth asked, releasing Chells' arm, "erm, sorry I didn't catch your name."  
"He tried to kill me," Chell muttered, the anger still there but had begun subsiding a little.  
"You… can speak! Fantastic! Bloody brilliant luv! Still the best jumper I know," he rambled, seeming to ignore the actual words she spoke.  
"I nearly did too… but you don't hate me for it do you? I mean you came to get me and everything," Beth spoke softly, placing a hand on Chells' shoulder, "we're friends right? You two should make up, friends forgive each other for mistakes like that."  
It was obvious that Beth didn't understand to what extent Wheatley had betrayed her. Chell knew she was right, somewhat, but she just stood there, focusing her grey eyes on the A.I turned human. She had never thought it had been his fault. Even GLaDOS had changed when she had been away from Her chassis. The programming must have messed with his circuitry to some extent.  
"Wheatley," Chell said, trying to push her emotions back down inside her where they belonged in this place, "this time we will escape."  
"W-Wheatley..?" Beth muttered, confusion in her voice, and instantly Chell wished she had done what she always had and just remained silent, "your names Wheatley too?"  
Chell grabbed Beths' arm and motioned for Wheatley to follow. They could discuss their similarities on the move. She knew staying in one spot for too long could end in disaster. Hadn't GLaDOS mentioned that She had created testing robots? She vaguely remembered catching glimpses of them while she had been doing Wheatleys' tests and when she had awoken in Her chamber after being on the moon. She frowned, dragging Beth a little faster down the corridor with Wheatley following along behind. She felt a pang of guilt for leaving his core body behind.  
"Escape, yeah.. Don't think I can hack like back then. Erm, so er, who else do you now called Wheatley?" his voice carried through the room. Chell almost laughed, his 'hacking' would probably be much the same as back then.  
"Well, actually…" Beth started as Chell opened another door, groaning a little at all the catwalks beyond.


	11. The tip of the iceberg

Wheatley rubbed the back of his head with one broad hand as they began moving down the catwalk. He had passed the portal gun to Chell after she had spent a full minute stopping him from moving forwards and pointing at it. She had always seemed to know what she was doing with it anyway.  
Seeing Chell again had been more than he hoped for. It almost made being a smelly human worthwhile. And seeing another human with her had been just as much of a shock. The new female had told him that her last name was Wheatley and she had seemed almost as perplexed as he was.  
"Well luv, Wheatley is my only name," he frowned. He could just about remember trying to tell the scientists his name when they had first made him. But not one of them had taken the time to learn it. They had seemed happy with him, but had often left him on his own in a dark room at first. He shuddered involuntarily, those times were best left forgotten.  
"Are you sure?" Beth had turned on him, pointing to the Aperture logo printed above his heart on the orange jumpsuit, "it's just that…" Chell grabbed her arm, pulling her away from him and forcing her to walk forwards again. She stumbled a little as she was turned back around, falling back into step behind Chell.  
"The logo? Ah, what about it?" He asked curiously. But his train of thought was cut off as his stomach made that horrible growling noise again. He clutched at it, worry and fear settling in again, "oh god. It's doing it again! I don't want to die, I don't want to die…"  
Chell looked over her shoulder and raised a brow at him. She slowed to a stop and Beth almost walked into her back.  
"You're not going to die," Beth chuckled as she shook her head, "you're just hungry… you've never eaten before? How peculiar. Erm, Chell sweetie, where can we get something to eat? I'm starting to get hungry too."  
Chell raised the portal gun towards what looked like another test chamber. One of the panels had been pulled back slightly, its arm twitched but didn't move from its position. Before Wheatley or Beth could respond Chell had ducked inside the gap.  
"Ah, Chell, luv! Wait for us!" Wheatley cried, a little panicked that she had left him there. He ran to the hole and climbed inside.  
"Ugh, again? I hate these small places," he heard Beth mutter behind him as he crawled through the gap. Again he saw hand-prints on the walls and, as he stood, he could see writing scrawled on the walls. It was mostly unintelligible, he was only able to read a few scratched equations, not that they made any sense to him. There was even a well drawn picture of a cake. Scattered around on the floor were various mugs, cans and large empty bottles. A few computers lay in a corner. The small room was dusty and it looked as if nothing had been in there for a while.  
Chell was sat against a plain wall near a hole that let in white light. It gave the room a strange vibe and he shuddered a little, rubbing at his forearms in the chill air. She was holding a tin of something in her hand. Beth grumbled something behind him and walked around towards the other gap. She flopped onto the floor in front of Chell and Wheatley followed, dragging his feet a little.  
"Beans?" Beth asked with uncertainty in her voice, "are they alright? I mean, do you know how long they've been here?"  
Chell held a finger to her lips and motioned to the open gap besides her with the portal gun. Beth went quiet, glancing back at Wheatley with a frown. Chell held the tin out to Wheatley first. He took it cautiously and peered at its contents. Inside was just orange lumps with the same coloured thick liquid around them. He looked up to Chell and her friend to see that she was holding another can. He watched curiously as she dug her fingers in and held them to her open mouth. Wheatley noticed that her hand was empty but he copied the movements. He grimaced as he felt the small lumps on his fingers but lifted them to his mouth. Chell was doing something strange with her mouth, pretending to lick her fingers then move her cheeks around. Finally she pointed at him. Beth was giggling as she looked from one to the other. Wheatley gave the orange things a look before sticking them in his mouth and licking them from his fingers.  
"Now chew," Beth said as she tried not to laugh.  
He frowned at her and moved the things around his mouth. He cringed a little as his teeth crushed them and swallowed the gooey mess down quickly. He licked his lips.  
"Ah, its strange. But not too bad. Do you have to do this everyday?"  
He looked back into the tin and scooped out another handful of the little orange lumps. He caught Chell out of the corner of his eye as she gave a nod and saw Beth with her hand over her own mouth, with water forming in her eyes. He carried on eating, lowering himself to the ground and sitting with his back up against the painted wall.  
Chell found and opened another tin, dropping the apparently empty one she had demonstrated to him with, this time offering it to Beth. She watched them for a few seconds as they ate and leaned across to the gap in the wall besides her, peering through.  
"Aperture," started Beth and Wheatley looked over to her, "so this place is Aperture," she seemed to be staring at his logo again. Chell turned back around and stared at Beth, her face showed mild interest.  
"That's right," Wheatley said through a mouthful of beans, stopping to swallow them and almost choking. He rubbed at his throat.  
"You know, my dad worked in Aperture," Beth added as she stared into her tin.  
Chell had an even stranger expression on her face now. She was looking at Beth and then at him with her eyebrows raised and mouth hanging open. Wheatley smiled at her as he awkwardly shoveled more sticky orange lumps into his mouth, not really understanding the implications of Beths' sentence.  
"From what I do remember of him," the taller girl continued as she handed her unfinished food over to Chell, who took it uncertainly, "he never talked much about…"  
"There you are. You know, I may not give you that surprise now. Running away is not reward-able behavior for a test subject." The voice of GLaDOS rang out, seemingly coming from the hole in the wall Chell sat by.  
Wheatley and Chell dropped their tins simultaneously, sending beans all over the dusty floor. She jumped up, her face suddenly stern and the portal gun aimed at nothing from what he could tell. Wheatley sunk a little lower into the ground, swallowing down the last mouthful he had taken.  
"Not falling for your tricks luv!" he shouted from his hunched position, before he had even realized what he was saying.  
"What's going on..?" Beth whispered, half-pulling herself up and looking at both Chell and Wheatley in turn.  
The room began to shake a bit and Wheatley jumped forwards as the wall he was leaning on suddenly lurched into his back. He dashed over to Chell and her friend and stared back at the moving panels. He hadn't even noticed that the wall had been made out of them and he groaned at his stupidity.  
"I can easily send Blue and Orange to go in there and get you Moron. But I quite like the idea of you being flattened. Unless you. Come. Out. Now."  
"OK luv, rather we weren't squashed personally. Can imagine that would hurt quite a lot actually," he answered. But the panels kept moving, blocking off the way they had come. They had gotten uncomfortably close and he felt something tugging his arms. He spun around to see the two women had grabbed an arm each and were pulling him through the gap.  
"We?" GLaDOS questioned as they fell through the hole into another, rather simple, test chamber. A panel quickly blocked the hole, sliding neatly into its place. Wheatley groaned and looked up at a small camera watching them from the wall, before quickly glancing at the girls.  
"What is this place?" Beth muttered quietly as she and Chell let go of his arms. Chell was staring up at the camera too, the determination he was used to seeing again on her face.  
"Oh. Its you. You seem to have put on more weight in the last few days."  
"Hey, she's not fat. You said so yourself when you were a… oh, ah, never mind!" he cut himself off, waving a hand at the camera. He knew better than to insult Her or bring up potatoes in Her presence.  
"Erm, I don't understand! Been quite a lot to deal with for the last day or however long I've been here. Could someone please explain what's going on? Like who that woman speaking is and…"  
"Moron, are you an amoeba, or did you and the mute… Breed?" GLaDOS said, cutting her off. There was a hint of disgust in Her voice, "although, I'm pretty certain human children don't outgrow their mother this quickly."  
"I'm not a moron," Wheatley sighed then glanced at the two women. Chells' expression hadn't changed at all but Beth was rubbing a temple and looked more confused than ever, "you must be. Confusing an adult human for a child. Thought you were smarter than that luv."  
"You must really love testing, but I know you also love destroying my facility. That is why I sent you away," She continued, ignoring Wheatley completely. The camera twitched a little and he knew She was watching Chell from Her chamber.  
The smaller woman turned her back on the camera and shot a blue portal into the wall behind her. She turned sharply, shooting the orange gateway at a high ledge where a cube waited. Wheatley watched her as she stepped through the blue and came back with the cube held on the operational end of the ASHPD.  
"What are you doing?" Beth asked as Chell carried the cube over to the large, super colliding super button at the other end of the chamber. She didn't answer as she dropped the box onto the button, but motioned for them to follow as a yellow tick appeared by the exit.  
"Hmm. I already know you are capable of these tests," Her voice again rang out, "and I would put you all on the co-operative testing tracks. But they were built for two, not three people. And I am dealing with a mute lunatic and a complete moron here, perhaps I should separate you or I could just give you all a surprise."  
Wheatleys' heart thudded in his chest. He didn't want to be separated from Chell again, now that he had finally found her. And he had a nasty feeling that the surprise was nothing more than neurotoxin or the rather deadly cake he had never actually seen.  
Chell moved away from the exit and stood between Wheatley and Beth. She aimed the ASHPD straight at the camera and shot an orange portal at it. The camera fell through the blue portal with a clang and rolled a little on the floor. Wheatley smirked, this was obviously her way of saying 'no' without actually having to.  
"And that thing… opens door ways? Its hurting my head just thinking about it," Beth piped up.  
"To ensure performance of authorized activities, do not destroy vital testing apparatus," GLaDOS said, sounding rather bored. "Really, very mature," She added in a more sarcastic tone.  
Chell again motioned for Wheatley and Beth to follow her as she strode towards the exit.  
"Yeah, maybe someone can explain please?" Beth muttered as she and Wheatley ducked through the circular doorway behind Chell. "Ugh, what's that?!"  
"An emancipation grill luv," Wheatley said as she stopped and stared at it, he pushed her forwards straight through it, "don't want to be left behind now do we?"  
Chell waited by the glass elevator, motioning for them to hurry up. Wheatley smiled at her and went to step inside. Chell grabbed Beth and pulled her in, just as the door shut behind them. The elevator began to move and, with a sinking feeling in his gut, he realized it was going down. He interlaced his long fingers in front of him and stared down at them.  
"Sorry luv…" he muttered. Again this was his fault, if he hadn't been hungry they wouldn't of ended up in another test chamber in Her sight. Chell reached out a hand and patted his arm, her eyes softening a little. He smiled as Beth leant on the glass to their side, her arms crossed in front of her.  
"You want to do these dangerous tests together? All three of you? Well, I guess I can organize something. For science." GLaDOS spoke with a chuckle as the elevator continued its journey.


	12. Chamber 17

The elevator stopped and the glass doors slid open before them. Chell hoisted the ASHPD up and glanced back at Beth and Wheatley. They each seemed nervous in their own way, but again she looked past their similarities. Beth still had her arms crossed, with one arm resting on her shoulder as she fiddled with her long braid. Wheatley was still twiddling his thumbs.  
She made her way to the stairs leading into a test chamber with both of them following along behind her. Chell simply couldn't get what Beth had mentioned before out of her head. Her father had worked here and it wasn't entirely impossible that Wheatley was in some way related to her. Had he once been human as GLaDOS had? It wasn't such a stretch to think that. How old was Beth, and if Wheatley had been human, when had he been 'put' into a core. She rubbed a temple with a free hand as their three pairs of boots clanged up each step.  
"I have rearranged this test to suit the three of you. However only one Duel Portal Device is necessary," there was a hint of glee in Her voice, "but I think at least one of you will survive for further… testing."  
Chell gripped the portal gun tighter as the circular door opened. She expected light bridges, turrets and deadly acid pits beyond. But there wasn't a hint of any of those things.  
"What did she mean?" Beth asked and Chell saw her new friend looking around the test room with trepidation.  
"That She is going to kill us. Pretty sure that's what She means…" Wheatley answered as the door closed behind them.  
Chell gave a nod then walked down the corridor. This particular room felt all too familiar. She paused at the end, looking up at a broken vital apparatus vent and her stomach twisted uncomfortably.  
"Looks broken luv," Wheatley said, reaching up and patting at the lowest part of its glass. Again Chell nodded and motioned for them to follow. Around the corner stood two, tall steps with no portal-able surfaces. They were too high to climb. Chell shuddered, she knew perfectly well where this was going. She glared at the camera hanging from the wall.  
"Here sweetie, you go first," Beth said softly, interlocking her hands and holding them before her, "I'll be a step, then… Wheatley… can help me up. Right?"  
" OK, following your plan!" He chuckled nervously.  
Chell lifted her foot, being cautious not to catch Beths' hand on the metal spring on her heel, and climbed up. Wheatley copied Beth, lifting her up next, before both women pulled him up by the arms, with a little difficulty.  
Soon they had reached the top of the stairs. Beth stood there, rubbing at her shoulders while Chell peered around the corner. She found herself looking into another long corridor with a yellow energy ball flying towards her. She ducked back, watching it bounce off of the wall and head off down the corridor again.  
"You're heavy," she heard Beth mutter to Wheatley. Chell looked over at them.  
"Sorry.." he started, "can't really help it though."  
Chell turned back around, shooting an orange portal to the blackened mark on the wall ahead of them before she ducked down onto her hands and knees. She could hear the all too familiar ping of those dangerous balls of energy hitting the walls further along too. Beth and Wheatley stared at her for a moment, before each of them copied her. She nodded, crawling through the next corridor a little awkwardly.  
The energy balls whizzed over their heads and Chell kept glancing back to check they had their heads down. She was relieved when they followed along, making sure to do what she did. The last thing she wanted was to have one of them get hit in front of her.  
After a few minutes of shuffling and crawling they had made it along the second corridor and into the main part of the chamber. As they stood away from the energy balls she lifted the ASHPD and shot the blue portal on an angled ledge.  
"What are you..? Oh! Clever!" Beth chuckled a little as the energy bolt shot into its receiver. From its place on the ground a glass panel lifted up but she knew there was another one they would have to lift.  
Chell shot the orange portal at the second burned marks on the walls and jumped down to the lower part of the chamber. Another clang from behind her made her turn to see Beth had joined her.  
"That's quite high," Wheatley said, looking down at them from the upper level.  
Chell shook her head at him and held her arms out.  
"I think he may be too big to catch, but, erm, he has the same boots as us, so he'll be fine," Beth added with one eyebrow raised.  
Chell held up one finger before clutching her hand in a loose fist, counting down from the single digit. She hoped he recognized what she was trying to say. Wheatley gave a small, understanding smile before closing his eyes and leaping down. He landed in front of the two women and stumbled a bit, slowly opening his eyes.  
"And, I'm not dead!" he laughed.  
Chell patted him on his arm and gave a quick glance behind him where, once, a den had been. The panel had been pushed back into the wall and she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. She turned and pointed to the super colliding super button sat directly in front of a door.  
"That seems pretty simple," Beth spoke, moving forwards and standing on the button. The door opened, revealing another door behind it. Chell motioned for her to move away and pointed around the corner where another button sat on a ledge that was roughly the same height as she was.  
"I need help to get up there…"  
"That's alright luv, I'll give you a hand like earlier OK?" Chell watched as they went around to the other button and when they were out of sight she heard a grunt, presumably from Wheatley.  
"Ah, thanks! Oh it opens another door to where those shiny things go… I think." Beths' voice rang out in the chamber. A second later she could hear them talking in muffled words. She frowned, trying to ignore their apparent secrecy, and shot the blue portal at the panel directly in front of the first button. As quickly as she could she moved to the red button, holding it down with one foot and flinching slightly as the energy ball whizzed past. Chell looked over her shoulder to see that it had hit its mark.  
"Well done luv, but… Now what?"  
Through the open doorways she motioned for them to come with her. The door by the second button closing as Beth jumped down. She moved over to the blue portal, noticing with growing dread that the second panel had risen, before shooting the orange up onto the higher platform and stepping through. She jumped over onto the first raised ledge and waited for them. Wheatley was the first across with Beth following behind.  
"This is kind of fun," she giggled, "all we have to do is stand on buttons."  
"Well, not really. I've had enough of testing. Been doing it for… I don't even know how long… And as for Chell…"  
Chell waved her hand at them and hopped across the remaining two glass platforms. The dread intensified as she made her way down the last corridor where one button waited.  
"So one of us stands on that and it opens that door?" Beth asked, pointing down to a small room with a smaller button inside. Chell nodded once, the door below opening as Beth stood on the button. Her eyes drifted to the top of the incinerator waiting there. She guessed what was coming.  
"OK, I'll be honest. I didn't change this room. It is perfect for this purpose. Be reminded that the weighted companion cube can not talk and, if it does, you should disregard its advice." GLaDOS almost laughed as she spoke and Chell only set her jaw. She shook her head to Beth and motioned for her to get off of the button.  
"Huh? Why? Don't we need to press that one down there too to get through this?" Beth sounded a little hurt.  
Chell sat on the steps and motioned for the others to sit with her. The two of them looked at each other.  
"Its alright luv, you're tired right? We'll do this bit, doesn't seem too hard." Wheatley said, suddenly running off down to the other room and pressing the button inside.  
Chell jumped up as the timer began its incessant ticking. In a split second Wheatley had come out of the room, looking pleased at himself and Beth had run down to join him. The taller woman opened her mouth to say something as she leant over the incinerator.  
Chell forced her legs to move, running down to them and reaching her free hand towards Beth. The tips of her fingers felt cloth just as the room shook. The timer stopped but the incinerator door remained open and Chell could feel heat on her face.  
"AHHH! HOT!" Beth cried from her now upside down position in the vent, her arms swinging wildly at her sides. Chell gripped her shirt as tightly as she could, gritting her teeth as the chamber swayed again and her fingers began to ache from the pressure.  
"We've got you luv!" Wheatley cried as he leapt into action, albeit delayed. He grabbed Beths' legs, taking some of the weight from Chells' one hand.  
"Pull me up! Pull me up!" Beth screamed as one hand hit the inside wall of the incinerator, "oh god my hand! Fire! Definitely scared of fire now! Pull. Me. Up!"  
Chell tugged as hard as she could and heard something definitely ripping. Without another thought she slipped her hand out of the portal guns grip and grabbed one of Beths' flailing arms. The ASHPD hit the ground with a thud.  
"Well, this is interesting." GLaDOS said as Wheatley joined in with Chells' desperate pulling, "she was doing rather well as a companion cube. Surely your weight alone would pull her back over?"  
Chell scowled as finally Beth began to move away from immediate danger. She reached out and grabbed her shoulder, giving one last pull to get her out of the incinerator.  
With a whimper Beth fell backwards, tripping Wheatley up as she fell. Chell let go and stumbled back as the two of them landed side by side on the ground.  
"Ah! We did it luv," Wheatley chuckled, pulling himself up and brushing at his jumpsuit.  
Chell crouched down to Beth and gave her the once over. The end of her braid looked a little blackened and there was a distinct smell of singed hair. Her glasses had very nearly slipped off of the end of her nose and were hanging from one ear. And the palm of her hand sported a rather nasty looking burn. Beth was holding her wrist in her good hand, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Chell reached out and set her glasses right on her face.  
"Are you alright? Really should have asked that first." Wheatley said as he leant over them.  
"Yeah," Beth gave a feeble nod and wiped her eyes with her uninjured fingers. She adjusted her glasses and stood up slowly.  
Chell watched her carefully, reaching out and grabbing the portal gun again. She slid her hand back into its grip. She stood besides Beth and offered an arm for support when she saw the taller woman was shaking.  
"How disappointing, although that was quite an interesting performance." GLaDOS spoke again, sounding a little bored, "I even tried to help."  
"Wasn't really helping though was it? Could have killed both of them then… oh." Wheatley stared up at the camera, then sheepishly turned away. He rubbed the back of his head with one hand.  
Chell glared up at the camera as Beth leant on her shoulder and raised the ASHPD up to it.  
"Oh. You're feeling destructive again," GLaDOS said as the camera twitched slightly, "if that's how you feel then perhaps you should have let her fall. Or jumped in yourself. Either way is fine with me."  
Chell ground her teeth together, her fingers tightening around the grip of the portal gun. Before she had only been worried about escaping and, if she failed, she would just try again. But with Beths' near death experience she knew there was more to it than that this time. Wheatley stood awkwardly besides them, looking back up to the camera, then back to Chell.  
"You know," She continued, "I've just found a rather interesting file all about that moron."  
"Still not a moron," Wheatley almost growled, "besides, why should any of us believe you? All you ever do is lie luv. When you're not trying to kill one, or all, of us."  
"OK, this place… isn't as much fun as I first thought." Beth muttered, letting go of Chell and shakily looking down at her burnt hand again.  
"Oh, but I think you'll find this all quite interesting," She continued regardless, "it seems we have one, tiny and insignificant thing in common. Apart from a mute lunatic trying to murder us of course."  
"Chell isn't mute," Beth said angrily up at the camera.  
Chell could have shaken her for that. She could imagine GLaDOS in Her chamber, narrowing Her optic at the feed from this room. She bit her lip but remained as silent as ever.  
"Oh…" there was an unnaturally long pause from the supercomputer, "is that… right?"


	13. Unnecessary truths and lies

They had been stuck in the chamber for a while. GLaDOS had remained quiet and Chell couldn't help but feel a little unnerved by that. Was She planning something? She had to be. Perhaps She was just waiting to see if Chell would slip up and prove Beth to be right.  
"D-did I say something wrong?" Beth asked for the eighth time, glancing up at her.  
She was sat next to the still closed exit door with her back against the door and injured hand still held up. Occasionally she blew on the burn and winced. Wheatley stood to the other side of the door, waving uncertainly up at the camera. Chell rolled her eyes at them. Neither had seen to Beths' injury, even though they were perfectly capable of it. She strode over to the other woman and crouched in front of her. She took her hand and studied it.  
"Ow… its still really painful you know. Don't touch it!"  
Chell gave her a stern look as she touched the edge of her burn. The skin still felt too warm. Without immediate access to clean water the wound looked even worse. And there wasn't much that Chell could do while the skin was still hot. She carefully put the portal gun down and tore a piece off of the bottom of her shirt and began bandaging it. Anything would be better than leaving the wound open in this place. God only knew what Beth could catch.  
"Would… would you mind explaining some things now sweetie? Like, apart from us and that mad woman," she glanced up at the camera, "is there anyone else here..? Robots or human..?"  
"Well… there's a whole bucket full of… ah… cores. Then there's P-Body and Atlas and, erm, Her of course. Seriously doubt any of them painted those pretty pictures," Wheatley said, moving away from the camera and turning to look at them. Chell saw his eyes flick to her at the mention of the murals, "so maybe there is a chance that there's someone else? Although, thinking about it seriously, that's a bit far fetched. You know, after She released the neurotoxin that day I don't think anyone survived… but Chell did, by some miracle."  
Chell frowned slightly at him. It would make sense for him to know her history if he had read the information She had kept. Then again, would Wheatley have gone through those files when he had been in charge or had he seen her name written on that potato plant project?  
"Wait… neurotoxin?" Beth started as Chell finally tied off the makeshift bandage and slipped her hand back into the ASHPDs' grip.  
"Yep, released on 'Take Your Daughter To Work Day'. Bit of a disaster all around there, forty odd potato batteries and a baking soda volcano," he gave a bit of a chuckle and Chell glanced up at the camera. She couldn't tell if GLaDOS was still watching but the lens didn't move.  
"Although, those potatoes came in handy. They stopped Chell from starving to death, especially that big one. Grew all over the place that one did, right luv?" Wheatley added, smiling down at Chell.  
"Apertures' Take Your Daughter To Work Day?" Beth muttered, seemingly more to herself before quickly looking up to Chell, "ah! Oh that explains why you felt ill when John cooked up mashed potato for you! Makes sense I guess, if that's all you'd been eating."  
"You monsters!" GLaDOS gasped. Chell didn't move, but looked towards the camera. How could she explain to any of them that she had felt sick back then because she had imagined eating GLaDOS? Beth probably wouldn't or couldn't understand, Wheatley would most likely complain about them becoming 'best friends' and the supercomputer… Well, She would ridicule her further and god only knew what else.  
"Not really monstrous luv. Humans have to eat you know…" Wheatley started, turning his head to look back up at the camera.  
"She could have killed that bird and eaten that. But she didn't. She's a lunatic, and good at murder. But no, instead she thinks of eating… the thought alone is enough to make me sick."  
"Erm, I don't think she's a lunatic." Beth piped up, she had begun to play with her braid again. She kept her injured hand close to her chest.  
"You are a pathological liar. She is both a mute and a lunatic and has proven that many times," the camera twitched towards Beth, "a moron, a mute lunatic and a liar. I think I have wasted enough of my time on the three of you."  
The door opened and Chell watched Beth pull herself up. Wheatley was the first of them to go through it. Chell moved quickly, worried that She was trying to separate them again. But the door remained open, allowing them all to pass through it and the emancipation grid. She noticed that Beth was staring at Wheatley as she passed and a strange, new emotion rang through her. She tightened her grip on the portal gun, hoping that whatever it was she was feeling wasn't showing on her face.  
They moved cautiously down to the elevator and stepped inside. The glass doors closed behind them.  
"Do you remember I mentioned files on the moron, before you lied to me?" GLaDOS asked as the elevator began to move.  
"Still not a moron…" Wheatley grumbled, folding his arms in front of his skinny chest and pouting at nothingness.  
"It appears that I gave him the correct body," She continued and there was the sound of flicking paper, making Chell wonder if she had recorded that sound at some point, "as ridiculous as that seems. Certain names were redacted from the system. Although, it appears he is not the only one with his name here."  
Chell rolled her eyes, she had heard that before when She had 'surprised' her with non-existent information on her parents and confetti. She noticed the worried expression on Beths' face and tried to convey across to her to remain quiet. Apparently her message was lost.  
"H…how did you know? I haven't even told you my first name!" The taller woman suddenly cried.  
Wheatley conveyed exactly how Chell felt at that statement by bringing his face into one hand with a hard slap.  
"Ow," he muttered into his palm.  
There was a moment of silence from GLaDOS as the elevator suddenly stopped.  
"You are…" She started as Chell bit the inside of her lip.  
"A Wheatley…" Beth said uncertainly, cutting off the supercomputer mid-sentence.  
"Bethany Wheatley, mentioned by her father, a useless test subject, a total of two thousand eighty one times. Before he succumbed to neurotoxin." GLaDOS chuckled.  
Chell stared at Beth as her face crumpled.  
"No, my dad left me when I was six. Mum said…" her voice was barely a whimper and her hands had begun to shake.  
"Then your mother was a liar too. But I have some good news for you," She sounded pleased and Chell knew what she was going to say couldn't possibly be good, "the man in the elevator with you ultimately caused his death. Through his stupidity."  
For a moment everything went quiet. Chell watched as Beth turned slowly to face Wheatley. There were tears in her eyes threatening to fall. Wheatley just stood there, looking confused and awkward, his eyes going from one woman to the other.  
"H…how?" Beth muttered with a hint of doubt in her voice, reaching under her glasses and wiping at her eyes.  
"I don't know if that's possible luv. I mean, I wasn't aware there was anyone else with my name. And I was a core, I remember that day and hanging from my management rail…"  
"Oh, It was before then. Back when you were… well, a smelly human as you put it." GLaDOS again cut in, still sounding rather pleased with Herself. Wheatleys' face fell and he stared up at the ceiling of the elevator.  
"But I wasn't…" he began.  
"Oh yes you were moron. And one simple mistake ended up killing the liars' father."  
The elevator began to move again and Chell could feel the tension rising in it. She looked at the two people with her, unsure of what to do for once. She had begun to feel rather awkward stood in front of them.  
"What did you do?" Beth asked, her voice shaking as she stared up at Wheatley.  
"She's lying! I didn't do anything!" His arms flailed a little as he tried to get his point across.  
Chell narrowed her eyes. She knew GLaDOS was just trying to make them distrust one another. Probably so that it would be easier to kill them. Or perhaps so that they would kill each other. Beth looked at her with confusion, anger and sadness on her face.  
"I need an explanation and I don't know who I can trust… Chell…" she sniffed as she forced her hands to her sides. Her lip quivered a little. Chell grimaced a little and sighed, she didn't think it fair that this woman had just found out what happened to her father. Especially after everything else that she had been through in the last day or two. Chell looked at the two of them again. Beth still looked at her with tears in her bright blue eyes. Wheatley was staring at her too, a slightly more confused expression on his face.  
"She's lying," Chell said finally, trying to keep her barely used voice quiet as she pointed up to the ceiling with the portal gun. As soon as the words left her mouth the elevator shuddered to a halt. Chell managed to hold herself upright as Beth stumbled towards her and Wheatley was thrown backwards into the glass.  
"Ow, again," he muttered, glaring up at the ceiling.  
"So…" GLaDOS started with a growing irritation in Her voice, "the first words you speak are in calling me a liar? After all I've done for you? Isn't there anything else you want to say? Now that you're not a mute and, in fact, have the ability to speak."  
Chell leant back a little but said nothing.  
"So you still have nothing to say to me? Think back." GLaDOS continued after a moment of silence.  
"What did you want her to say?" Wheatley said, folding his arms before his chest again, "if I were her I don't think I'd say anything to you either. To be honest I was surprised that she even spoke to me after what I did…"  
"What?" She almost growled through the unseen speaker.  
"Erm, no no. forget I said that! Ah, I meant… just… now, was the first time I'd ever heard her speak," he was smiling broadly but his eyes darted around the elevator. Chell watched him, wishing that he could tell a decent lie just this once. Beth wiped at her eyes again.  
"What the hell is going on!" She cried, her hands still shaking a little, "first you tell me this… Wheatley person was a robot but was a human before that. Then you tell me my dad was killed by some brain poison because of this guy, now all you care about is whether Chell speaks or not?! What the hell is wrong with you people?!"  
Chell was certain she heard GLaDOS chuckle as Beth spoke. She raised a brow and reached out to Beth, patting her on the arm.  
"Chell, sweetie, why don't you just talk to the woman? Just say whatever if it'll shut her up! I've had enough!" Beth still looked more upset than angry, but it still took her by surprise.  
Chell grimaced a little, her eyes scanning the elevator for any signs of a camera, as she had done many times before. She still could not see one. Wheatley leant a little closer to her.  
"Luv?" Wheatley muttered, "you don't have to. I think I understand why you haven't spoken to us before. She should know you're mad at Her."  
She turned away from him and looked up at the ceiling, knowing that GLaDOS could see her even if there was no evidence of cameras. For the first time she was about to speak to the supercomputer that had almost killed her, consistently lied to her, had become someone to rely on and then had set her free. Chell still preferred her as a potato though and that made her think of her time in the bowels of Aperture. She gave the tiniest hint of a smile and spoke.  
"Thank you, Caroline."


	14. Altering plans

There was a stunned silence as Chells' carefully spoken words hung between them. Very slowly the elevator began to move.  
"Whose Caroline..?" Beth started and Wheatley stared up at the ceiling, crossing his arms before him.  
"Thought you deleted 'Caroline' luv? And why is Chell thanking a part of Your programming?" He looked over to Chell, who was giving him a strange look he couldn't quite understand. She seemed almost relaxed, as if some of the hardness had left her grey eyes, "luv..? Come on, its not nice to leave others out of the loop. What's going on..?"  
"Shut up, moron. Its not as if the lunatic is just going to tell you, after what you did to her. To be honest, I am surprised you have survived this short ride with those two."  
Wheatley looked at the two woman on either side of him. Beth was gritting her teeth and held one hand against the side of her head. There was still a mix of hatred and upset in her clear blue eyes. Chell, on the other hand, still looked relatively calm. He rubbed his eyes when he thought he saw her smile, only for her expression to return to its usual determination. This time she did not direct her focus at him, but at the doors of the elevator.  
Wheatley turned around to see that they were slowly entering another test area. He sighed a little as the doors slid open. He took the first step into the clean hallway and looked up the stairs with a weight in his heart. Chell came out next, turning around and waving her arm at Beth to get her to follow.  
"Come on, erm, Beth," he said, turning back to smile at her. She stared at them for a moment before moving unsteadily out of the elevator without a word.  
The three of them moved up the stairs with Chell leading the way. Beth kept her eyes on the ground, she still seemed pretty shaken by all that she had heard. He sighed and looked up towards the circular door as it opened from its middle.  
Much like his speech patterns his thoughts raced through his mind. He briefly wondered how Chell and the taller woman had met before his thoughts changed direction. He thought about what GLaDOS had said and whether it was true or not, although he found that hard to tell at times.  
Before he knew it his eyes were fixed onto the back of Chells' head. His thoughts raced a little faster, ranging from their first meeting to ending up orbiting the moon. He was relieved to find how pleased he was to be around her again but terrified of the newer and stranger emotions that began to flood through him. He looked away, fixing his eyes on a point between his long-fall boots.  
He was too absorbed in his own thoughts to take much notice of the other sounds around him and nearly fell over Beth as she suddenly stopped.  
"Whoa! Sorry, my fault. I was just, ah, thinking about whether what She said was true or not…"  
"Heh heh heh, I've just found out something else you may find interesting," GLaDOS said and Wheatley turned to spot her camera. He felt his new human heart thud heavily within his chest. He clutched at his jumpsuit, scared it may suddenly burst out of his rib cage.  
They weren't in another test at all. Instead they were stood in the entrance of Her chamber. There were a few things he noticed as he stood there gawping. Firstly was that Beth was shaking, but he couldn't tell whether it was from anger or fear. Secondly was the lonely looking portal gun laying on the ground a few feet ahead of them, no longer attached to the girl who used it so expertly. Something didn't look right about it either and he frowned. He looked up into the glowing yellow optic of the super computer suspended from the ceiling. Hanging next to her was one of her claws and from it dangled Chell, her arms crossed in front of her.  
"W-what the… what on earth is that?" Beth spluttered, waving an arm in the general direction of Her.  
"Erm, luv… what are we doing here?" Wheatley said, stepping forwards a little. His legs felt like dead weights and each step was difficult for him. His heart beat heavily and his palms felt moist. He felt more terrified than he had ever felt before in Her presence.  
"Now you are not a core there isn't much you can do, moron. That is why I removed the portal device from the lunatic. She has killed me once… and attempted to a second time."  
"Makes us even," Chell spoke from her dangling position, her voice sounded too calm considering GLaDOS had trapped them. Wheatley could only watch as She turned in Her chassis and narrowed Her yellow optic at the tiny woman.  
"Not exactly. You murderer. I haven't killed you. Anyway," Her optic looked at each of them in turn and Beth pulled back into Wheatleys' shadow, he was certain he had seen Chell roll her eyes. "As I was saying. I have found something interesting in these files. Bring Your Daughter To Work Day was the perfect time to have her tested." Her optic appeared to narrow again as She stared down at Wheatley and Beth. He opened his mouth to answer Her but was quickly stopped as She continued, "and it seems you didn't come. So you missed out on all the science." She laughed again as another claw came from the ceiling.  
Wheatley ducked out of the way and spun around only to see that it had grabbed Beth by the shoulders. She gave a frightened yelp as GLaDOS lifted her and hung her next to Chell.  
"I-if anything you've said is true… I'm glad I was sick!" she cried out in a high pitched voice. She began to kick and struggle in the claw as Wheatley watched. He felt a little awkward stood there and a thought struck him. He checked the walls for signs of Her neurotoxin tubes but saw no evidence of them.  
"Well, this is surreal. Aren't you going to kill us? I mean, that's what you were planning to do. And doesn't that mean those two are the same age? That's pretty interesting isn't it luv? I find it interesting anyway…" he spoke rapidly looking from the two dangling women to GLaDOS.  
"You are almost as much of an idiot as him," She said, her optic turning to Chell as She completely ignored Wheatley again, "I let you go to go and destroy somewhere else that isn't my facility. And you return. But… I stick by my previous statement. Killing you is hard. Still…" She swung around in Her chassis, looking first at Beth and then to Wheatley, "I can still kill these two."  
They almost had time to feel fear before a loud burst of static cut through the room. GLaDOS turned Her attention to a small computer terminal nearby.  
"What was that..?" Wheatley started, keeping an eye on the women above. Chell stared down, her emotion unreadable from that distance. Beth, on the other hand, was still kicking at air and had begun to cry.  
"Don't….. What…. Want….just a box…." Wheatley jumped back as the words came out of the computer with a male sounding voice. The sentence broken and filled with the loud static. Beth kept sobbing from above.  
"What in the world..?" he started, staring at the terminal.  
"John..?" Beth squeaked, "John!"  
"Be quiet moron. And you too, liar, or I will shake you until you are." GLaDOS answered without turning her attention from the computer screen. He heard Beth go quiet and, without moving from where he was standing, tried to peer across at the screen.  
There was a thud beneath the static and it almost sounded as if something was being dragged. A new voice spoke through the black noise, this one sounding much harsher but still broken up.  
"Where is…tell us… gets hurt…" Wheatley could almost hear crying in the background and a shudder ran up his spine. He could tell from the tone the new voice used that whatever he was saying was a threat. He had used that tone himself. Guilt again began to eat at him.  
"You're in it….nothing… miles…" the first, calmer voice replied, "ask again… are you?"  
"GLaDOS?" Chell suddenly said and Wheatley looked away from squinting towards the screen. GLaDOS had drawn back, her optic still focused on the computer.  
"ack… Mesa…" yet another voice said and a few more thuds accompanied it before the sound of the static grew louder.  
The computer turned off and Wheatley looked up at Her. She could have turned it off at anytime. Was whatever they had heard that important to the supercomputer? But not important enough for her to listen without the three of them in the room. It confused him a great deal, but he had never really understood Her.  
"Luv? What was that?" he started, noticing that She had started to lower Her claws back to the ground.  
"Well… perhaps I was wrong about you lunatic. It seems you have brought a new disaster to the outside," She chuckled again as Her claws released the women. Beth half collapsed onto the ground, still sniffling and shaking a little. Chell, however, just remained where she had been placed.  
Wheatley finally felt his legs move and he strode as confidently as he could over to the two women.  
"What do you mean? What was that?" he asked with a little concern as he moved next to Cell, immediately feeling a little better in her presence.  
GLaDOS turned in her huge chassis, lowering her head just a little so that she could look down at them.  
"You really are a moron." She answered simply. Wheatley clenched his teeth and felt his hands ball into fists. Maybe it was a bad idea to show concern to Her.  
"I am not a moron!" he cried up at Her.  
He felt something touch his hand and looked sideways at Chell. She held his wrist gently in her palm and looked at him with the tiniest hint of worry. Again he felt guilty for what he had done to her, but made no move to pull away. Instead he stared at the toe of his left long-fall boot and hunched his shoulders.  
Beth pulled herself up and moved over to the other side of Chell. Her eyes were a little red and were still moist. He even felt bad for her. After all, it was probably highly confusing for someone to find out all the things she had in her time here.  
"T-that sounded like John," he heard Beth mutter and glanced along to her. She was leaning close to Chell while trying to keep her head down, "do you think he's in trouble?"  
GLaDOS sighed and spun around to face them. She pushed Her 'face' closer to the three of them and Wheatley almost fell over backwards to get away. Chell tightened her grip on his arm, forcing him to stay put.  
"Whispering is rude," She said, narrowing Her optic at them, "I would ask you to tell me all you know, liar, but you don't have the best track record."  
"I'm not a liar," Beth stammered as she grabbed Chells' other arm and cowered under Her gaze, "I told the truth didn't I? Admit it, you're the liar… whatever you are…"  
Wheatley could tell GLaDOS had become even more angry, although he couldn't put his finger on how he could tell. Perhaps it was the way She tilted Her head very slightly, or maybe Her optic glowed a little brighter. Still it made his mouth feel dry and the tiny hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.  
"Fine. Answer my questions and… maybe… I won't kill you. At least not yet," She said, pushing Her head just that little bit closer, "I am aware of who you are. I need information on where you came from."  
"Er," Wheatley cut in, still leaning back so that Chell was ahead of him. He felt so much safer with her in front, "why do you need to know that? I mean, didn't she come from the cryogenic slee… ow!" Chell tugged his arm to cut him off and he frowned at her. She looked over to Beth and nodded towards GLaDOS. It was as if she was encouraging the taller woman. Beth swallowed hard.  
"Well… I'm not sure how far away it is," she paused and looked across at Chell and Wheatley before pushing her glasses up her nose and facing GLaDOS again. Wheatley noticed her bandage was looking grubby but she wasn't paying much attention to he injury anymore.  
"Are you an idiot? Then tell me, how exactly did you end up in my facility?"  
"Err, well… I fell in, from the wheat fields…"  
GLaDOS pulled back, Her optic widening very slightly. She spun around and glanced back to the computer.  
"How far from where you fell is… [insert town name here]?" GLaDOS turned back around. Her voice didn't sound quite as harsh as it had done. Beth just looked nervous and again glanced to Chell, "seriously. I need to know."  
Wheatley furrowed his brow. So there was a town nearby? He wondered how many humans were there and if they smelled as badly as the ones he couldn't wake in the cryogenic sleep chambers. He then thought of why GLaDOS seemed so interested. Could she be looking for more test subjects..?  
"Not far… I think." Beth answered quietly, "in all my life I never knew something like, erm, you, existed. And I've been in that town for as long as I remember…"  
"Of course you were." She said with a growing excitement, "Employee housing was standard for those with families. Still, I never knew there were… survivors. Heh heh heh"

A/N: Its been a really busy week but I will be continuing this story. Actually I wanted to get this idea into the story earlier, but it didn't seem to fit. Oh well. Hope you like this story so far.


	15. A sense of purpose

Chell had taken in everything that GLaDOS and Beth had said to one another. The 'town' she had come across on her first day of freedom hadn't actually been that. Beth had been raised there, probably along with all the other residents, right above the supercomputer and all the dangerous equipment at Her disposal. So close to danger yet, for how ever many years, they had been safe.

The thing that stood out as odd to her were the voices coming from the computer. In almost the same way as that device that had warned her of Beths' predicament, the computer was warning them. She had taken in every broken word and hiss of static that flowed from the speakers. She could hazard a guess to what the stranger had meant but with nothing else to go on she couldn't be sure of how much danger laid above. Still, she had the feeling that John, and perhaps the others, needed help as soon as possible.

GLaDOS swung in Her chassis. She appeared to be thinking, but She could well have been testing with the two robots Chell had caught glimpses of. Either way Her attention was definitely elsewhere.

Beth hung onto Chells' arm and shivered in the chill air. Both she and Wheatley hung back, forcing Chell to be the one between them and the supercomputer.  
"It appears there is a minor problem," GLaDOS spoke after a few minutes, swinging around quickly to face them and making the two Wheatleys flinch.  
Chell tilted her head at Her, each arm still being gripped tightly by each of her friends.

"What sort of problem? With one of the tests or, ha, erm, your neurotoxin..?" Wheatley started. He was obviously trying to keep his voice steady. Chell could feel that the skin around his wrist was cold and his teeth clattered a little as he spoke. She guessed this was the first time he had taken notice of the cold, recycled air.  
"I would love to kill you moron," GLaDOS said with a hint of both annoyance and joy, "and you will be pleased to know that all of my facility is working properly. But, until I know where these two," Her yellow optic narrowed towards the two women, "entered, then…"

"Then..?" Wheatley added, using his free arm to make a rolling motion to encourage her on.

Chell wondered where he had picked that gesture up from. She pulled herself away from the two of them and crossed her arms in front of her. She began to tap the toe of her long-fall boot on the panels beneath her feet impatiently. GLaDOS watched her, Her chassis appeared to twitch the smallest amount. Chell almost laughed. She could tell, although she wasn't sure of why, that GLaDOS was scared. Not of her, but of something else.

"You're afraid," she said as she stared back into that yellow optic. She had seen GLaDOS afraid before, back in the bowels of Aperture. Both frightened and confused with just a potato as Her source of energy Chell could understand easier. But up here, in charge of the entire facility with nothing more powerful than She was, it didn't seem to make sense.

"Don't be ridiculous," the supercomputer scoffed, rolling her optic dramatically, "fear is a human emotion. In case you haven't noticed, I am not human. Besides what would I have to fear?" But Chell wasn't fooled by Her speech, after all Wheatley had shown fear plenty of times. Not to mention GLaDOS had at least something human about her, in the form of the CEOs' assistant. She raised a brow and glared back. They stared at each other for a moment, with both Beth and Wheatley remaining quiet behind Chell. GLaDOS finally sighed.

"I think you are far more brain damaged than we originally thought," She said and Chell noticed a glass elevator slowly lowering from the ceiling behind Her.  
"More testing now then luv? Right… but you've destroyed the portal gun. Rather hard to test properly without that don't you think?" Wheatley started up again and Chell knew he had seen the elevator too.

"The duel portal device is fully operational," GLaDOS answered, "and you and the liar will be continuing testing."

Chell felt her heart miss a beat with trepidation and, trying to keep her emotions away from her face, she looked back over her shoulder. Beth stared ahead with her mouth hanging open and Wheatley appeared to be doing the same.

"What about Chell..?" she asked as she began to play with the charred end of her braid.

"You're not going to kill her are you luv? I mean, I don't…" Wheatley added, his eyes darting around in much the same way as his optic had when he had been a core. Although worried for them Chell was still tempted to smile at how little he had changed, considering.

"Be quiet," GLaDOS rolled Her optic, cutting Wheatley off mid-sentence, "as I was saying. You two will continue testing," She swung back to Chell, "I have something else for the lunatic to do. Liar, collect the duel portal device and make your way to the elevator. Moron, you follow. You are capable of that aren't you?"

Chell watched as Beth cautiously picked up the ASHPD and held it awkwardly in both hands. She took a minute to look at it nervously, before looking towards GLaDOS. Wheatley stepped up beside her, his hands hanging by his sides and a defeated look on his face. Chell gave them a single nod, although she was worried about where this was leading.

The two Wheatleys' made their way to the elevator and cautiously stepped inside. Chell bit the inside of her mouth as she watched them slowly wave to her, both looking afraid, before the lift moved and they disappeared into the ground.

Chell stared at the spot they had been as a panel moved across the elevator shaft before looking back to the supercomputer that towered over her. She knew if she had to she would find a way to escape, but she also didn't want to leave Wheatley or Beth alone here.

"You're good at destroying things," GLaDOS stated, watching her carefully. Chell tilted her head, knowing there was no reason for her to remain quiet now that She knew she could speak.

"So you say," she retorted, unfolding her arms and resting her hands on her hips.

"I say so because it is true. You have successfully destroyed my facility once and helped the moron on his own attempt. Not to mention all that expensive equipment that met its demise at your chubby fingers," Chell rolled her eyes at another of Her insults to her weight as She spoke, "you are good at murder. So I have a task for you to complete."

"If I say no?" Chell answered, narrowing her steel grey eyes up at GLaDOS.

"Why do you think I have separated you from those two? Indeed it has given me some fine points for how humans react given certain situations, but there is always more to learn… for science. For example you have shown you will risk your life for a member of the same sex when faced with being baked alive. However," She lowered Her head a little, "how far will you go? They may not survive for long here. You should be aware of that."

"Even if I do as you say, how will I know they're alive?" Chell replied through gritted teeth. She knew exactly what their chances of survival were here. Beth didn't understand or know of most of the dangers for starters, it also wouldn't help if GLaDOS kept throwing in the insults and attempts to divide them. Then again She could just kill them whenever She wanted to. Chell couldn't help but wonder if Wheatley had been right about Her deleting Caroline, She seemed to be enjoying this too much.

"Heh heh, you won't. But I assure you, if you do not complete the task I will set for you, then I will exterminate them. And killing other, non brain damaged humans, is easy. Trust me on that."

"The task?" Chell said simply, she couldn't help but find evil geniuses annoying more than frightening. After all she had dealt with two of them, both of which had been A.I.

"Heh heh," She moved a little, allowing Chell to view the computer screen, "all the information is on there. The weighted companion cube is useful for many, many things."

Chell moved forwards, bouncing on the heels of her long-fall boots, to get a better look at the computer. She leaned closer to the screen, but all she could see was the usual yellow numbers. She frowned and glanced over her shoulder to GLaDOS. She nearly fell over herself when she saw that the supercomputer was hovering just over her shoulder. Chell felt her mouth go dry.

"What am I looking at?" she asked, turning back to the computer screen and trying to steady her heart. She cursed GLaDOS mentally for being so sneaky, despite Her immense size, and hoped she hadn't flinched.

"Of course, you can't read the binary code. You are just a test subject," She gloated and Chell was certain this was just another way of showing off to Her, "but I have not got the time nor patience to translate."

Chell could feel her irritation growing and, again, began to tap her foot upon the ground.

"The task?" She asked simply, turning and glaring up at GLaDOS once more.

"You know, I could just kill you now. The moron and liar too. I could send Blue and Orange to do it. They have been most useful."

"You wont," Chell replied, narrowing her eyes.

"Go to the surface. This time, actually do what I am counting on. Make a new disaster," She moved back a little and Her optic focused on something over Chells' shoulder. She turned around and raised a brow as another elevator lowered from the ceiling, "just go."

"Better not be a trap," Chell muttered under her breath as she strode towards the lift and stepped inside its glass doors. She turned back to face GLaDOS as the elevator began to move upwards. The supercomputer remained quiet but watched her until she had left Her chamber.

Chell leant back a little on the railing around the glass. She still didn't know what awaited her when she reached the surface. That was if GLaDOS wasn't just tricking her again and that was entirely possible. Chell thought back to the broken message she had heard through the computers speakers. Mesa had been mentioned. The word reminded her of Cave Johnsons' rants and a few projections she had seen through the windows of locked offices. Black mesa was that companies name. she knew there was some sort of completion between them and Aperture, but she didn't know to what extent.

She passed the same rooms and collapsing test chambers as she had done when GLaDOS had first exiled her into the wheat field. Only this time there were no singing turrets or beautiful orchestra. She felt a little disappointed and began to wonder if she had seen and heard them the first time at all.

The elevator lurched suddenly and stopped. Its glass doors swinging open to the same sliver of golden light. Chell walked forwards and pushed the door of the shack open. Again she was temporarily blinded by the bright light from the sun bouncing off of the golden yellow grasses.

This time, when the door slammed closed behind her, there was no echoing thud from within the shack. And no joy at the fresh air or distant bird song, only the heavy sense of dread. She took a deep breath and bounced along through the wheat in the general direction she had followed before. Chell didn't know when she would reach the town, but without the companion cube she was sure she would make better time than before. She hoped that GLaDOS had at least enough patience to keep Beth and Wheatley alive.


End file.
